Bronwyn Bancroft | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bancroft in 2011 | |
| Born | 1958 (age 67–68) Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia |
| Notable work | Prevention of AIDS (1992) Tempe Reserve sports centre (2004) |
Bronwyn BancroftAM (born 1958) is anAboriginal Australian artist, administrator, book illustrator, and among the first three Australian fashion designers to show their work in Paris. She was born inTenterfield, New South Wales, and trained inCanberra andSydney.
In 1985, Bancroft established a shop called Designer Aboriginals, selling fabrics made by Aboriginal artists, including herself. She was a founding member ofBoomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative. Her artwork is held by theNational Gallery of Australia, theArt Gallery of New South Wales and theArt Gallery of Western Australia. She illustrated and written 47 ;children's books, includingStradbroke Dreamtime by activistOodgeroo Noonuccal, and books by artistSally Morgan. Her design commissions include one for the exterior of a Sydney sports centre.
Bancroft has a long history of involvement in community activism and arts administration, and has served as a board member for the National Gallery of Australia. Her paintingPrevention of AIDS (1992) was used in a campaign to raise awareness ofHIV/AIDS in Australia. She served on the boards of copyright collection agency Viscopy, theAustralian Society of Authors and Tranby Aboriginal College, and the Artists Board at theMuseum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) inSydney.
ABundjalung woman,[1][2] Bancroft was born inTenterfield, a town in rural New South Wales, in 1958.[3] She was the youngest of seven children of Owen Cecil Joseph Bancroft, known as "Bill"—an Aboriginal Australian from theDjanbun clan—and Dot, who is ofScottish andPolish ancestry.[4][5] Bancroft has said that her great-great-great-grandmother Pemau was one of only two or three survivors from her clan, the rest murdered when their land was settled by a white farmer.[1] Her grandfather and uncle worked in local goldmines.[6] She recalled that her father's education was obstructed by discrimination because he was Aboriginal. His lack of formal training meant that he had to work away from home cuttingrailway sleepers, while her mother worked at home as a dressmaker.[4] Bancroft's father was an engineer during World War II, managing barges atMadang andRabaul.[1]
Following her father's advice on the importance of getting an education or a trade, Bancroft completed high school in Tenterfield before moving to Canberra in 1976 with her husband-to-beNed Manning, who had also been her teacher.[1] There Bancroft completed a Diploma of Visual Communications through theCanberra School of Art,[7] followed by a Master of Studio Practice and a Master of Visual Arts (Paintings) at theUniversity of Sydney.[8] She never returned to live in Tenterfield,[1] although her three sisters were living there in 2004. Her father died around 1990.[6] Bancroft has three children: Jack was born in 1985, Ella in 1988. She separated from Manning when they were very young; her third child Rubyrose was born in 1999.[4] Jack was awarded NSW YoungAustralian of the Year in 2010 for his work arranging the mentoring of Indigenous school students.[9]
Bancroft was a founding member of theBoomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative,[2] one of Australia's oldestIndigenous-run artists' organisations,[10] established in 1987.[11] She served in the roles of chairperson, director, and treasurer during its first two decades.[1][5] In 1985, she opened a shop in Sydney called Designer Aboriginals, selling the work of designers including her own fabrics,[2] and staffed by her Indigenous female students.[8] Bancroft,Euphemia Bostock andMini Heath were the first Australian fashion designers invited to show their works in Paris, where Bancroft's painted designs on cloth were exhibited at the 1987 Printemps Fashion Parade.[12][13][14] Two years later, in 1989, she contributed to a London exhibition,Australian Fashion: The Contemporary Art.[12] Despite these successes, she moved away from the fashion industry, telling an interviewer in 2005 that she had not done fabric design for 15 years.[15] Described as "an instinctive colourist", Bancroft has since worked primarily as a painter, and has developed "a glowing style reminiscent of stained glass windows".[2] She has cited as influences the American painterGeorgia O'Keeffe, European paintersJoan Miró,[2]Wassily Kandinsky, andMarc Chagall, and Australian Indigenous artists such asEmily Kngwarreye,Rover Thomas, and Mary MacLean.[16]
Although initially known as a fabric and textile designer, Bancroft has worked with many artistic media, including "jewellery design, painting, collage, illustration, sculpture and interior decoration".[8] Art works by Bancroft are held by theNational Gallery of Australia, theArt Gallery of New South Wales, theArt Gallery of Western Australia and theQueensland Art Gallery.[8] The National Gallery holds one of her screenprints,Entrapped, created in 1991.[17] Between 1989 and 2006, Bancroft held eight solo exhibitions and participated in at least 53 group exhibitions, including shows at theAustralian Museum in Sydney, theNational Gallery of Australia in Canberra, and theNational Gallery of Victoria.[8] Her art has been exhibited in Indonesia, New Zealand, the US, France and Germany.[18]
In 2004, Bancroft was commissioned to design a large mural covering the exterior of a sports centre housing two basketball courts at Tempe Reserve inMarrickville, New South Wales. The mural depicts a snake, a man, and a woman, representing both biblical and Indigenous Australian creation stories. It also includes thegoanna, the ancestral totem of the Marrickville area's original inhabitants, theWangal people.[15]
Bancroft ventured into illustrating children's books in 1993, when she provided the artwork forFat and Juicy Place written by Dianna Kidd.[7] The book was shortlisted for theChildren's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year[7] and won the Australian Multicultural Children's Book Award.[19] In the same year, she illustratedStradbroke Dreamtime by Indigenous activist and writerOodgeroo Noonuccal.[7] She was the third artist to have provided images for successive editions of the book, of which the first edition was released in 1972.[20] Bancroft has since contributed artwork for over 20 children's books, including some by prominent Australian writer and artistSally Morgan, whom she regards as a mentor and friend.[15] These books includeDan's grandpa (1996)[21] andSam's bush journey (2009).[22] The two artists collaborated on an exhibition of prints atWarrnambool Art Gallery in Victoria in 1991.[12] Researcher and museum curatorMargo Neale has described the art of both Bancroft and Morgan as depicting "their relationship to country and family in generally high-keyed works, celebrating and commemorating through personal or collective stories in mainly figurative narratives."[23]
As well as working with established writers, Bancroft has created a number of children's books in her own right, includingAn Australian 1 2 3 of Animals andAn Australian ABC of Animals, which have been favourably reviewed as imaginative and well-illustrated.[24] Her style of illustration has been described as "bold and mysterious",[25] and as "traditional Australian Aboriginal representation rendered in bright, eye-catching colors."[24] In 2009 Bancroft received theDromkeen Medal for her contribution to children's literature.[26] In May 2010, the Governor-General of AustraliaQuentin Bryce launched Bancroft's latest book,Why I Love Australia. A long-time supporter of Bancroft's work, Ms Bryce said: "Why I love Australia is a work and title that, again, speaks volumes of its author and illustrator. It simply and exquisitely rejoices in telling a story of this magnificent, sacred land we share: the mountains, rivers and gorges; seas and coral reefs; grasslands and bushlands; saltpans and snow; houses and streets; the jeweled night sky, and so much more."[27]
Bancroft's art has also appeared in the publications of a number of other individuals and organisations, including as cover art for books from the Australian Museum[28] and theNew South Wales Education Department,[29] forLarissa Behrendt's novelHome,[30] and forRoberta Sykes's controversial autobiographical narrativesSnake Cradle andSnake Dancing, among others.[31]
Bancroft has been active in arts organisations, and served two terms on the board of the National Gallery of Australia during the 1990s. She was chair of the Visual Arts Board of theNew South Wales Ministry for the Arts,[16] and of the National Indigenous Arts Advocacy Organisation from 1993 to 1996.[7][2] In the lead-up to the2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Bancroft was a member of the design committee that advised on the development of the games' official logo,[32] and has acted as a judge for the $35,000 Country Energy Art Prize.[33] Bancroft was a member of the board of directors of the Australiancopyright collection agency, Viscopy, and while serving in that position has been an advocate ofresale royalty rights for artists.[34] She has observed that "resale royalties are an intrinsic link to the improvement of the inherent rights of Australian artists to a fair income".[35] She was a member of theMuseum of Contemporary Art Australia's Artist Advisory Group in 2005,[36] and is a member of the museum's artists board.[37] She has served on the board of the Indigenous training organisation,Tranby Aboriginal College.[38]
Within and beyond her artistic works, Bancroft has demonstrated concern for a range of social issues, particularly those affecting Indigenous Australians. Her paintingPrevention of AIDS (1992) was reproduced on posters and postcards aimed at raising awareness ofHIV/AIDS,[39] and was one of several of her images commissioned by the federalDepartment of Health to highlight issues regarding the disease in the Indigenous community.[40] In 2000, two years after the death of activistMum (Shirl) Smith, Bancroft and theBoomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative organised a fund-raising exhibition of art works in Smith's honour.[41]
As of 2009, Bancroft was a director of the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to increase senior high school and university admission rates for Indigenous students.[42] She has taught and mentored Indigenous school students such as Jessica Birk, a winner of theAustralia Council's inaugural Emerging and Young Artist Award in May 2009.[43]
In 2021, Bancroft was inaugural recipient of the A$30,000 NSW Aboriginal Creative Fellowship.[44][45]
Since February 2023, she has served as a board member of theAustralian Society of Authors.[46]
Bancroft was appointed aMember of the Order of Australia in the2024 King's Birthday Honours for "significant service to the arts, and to the Indigenous community".[47]
She was awarded the 2024Lady Cutler Award for her "distinguished service to children's literature" with a particular focus on Aboriginal children's literature.[48]
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