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Bronwyn Bancroft
Visual Artist and Book Illustrator
Bronwyn is a highly acclaimed Aboriginal artist and designer whose artworks have been collected by galleries and museums throughout Australia, in the USA and Germany. She is a descendant of the Bunjalung people of New South Wales and grew up in the small country town of Tenterfield. She now lives in Sydney with her three children.
Bronwyn graduated from the Canberra School of Arts in 1980, having developed a unique glowing style reminiscent of stained glass windows. She credits global Indigenous cultures and the artists Kandinsky, Miro and Georgia O’Keefe as influencing this style and believes in using a range of media and materials thereby diversifying her artistic practice. In 1985, Bronwyn established Designer Aboriginals, a commercial enterprise which produces and and sells her fabrics, fashion and jewellery. Young Aboriginal people are employed and trained in aspects of design, production and retailing.
Exhibitions of her art have been shown throughout Australia as well as in Indonesia, New Zealand, the USA, France and Germany. She was Chairperson of NIAA (National Indigenous Arts and Advocacy Association, formerly AAMA - Aboriginal Arts Management Association) from 1993 to 1995, has worked as a Tutor and Lecturer in Creative Arts Programs, as a Fashion Designer and Restaurateur. Since 2001 she has been on the board of VISCOPY. Her work in book illustration has been extremely successful.
In 1994 she was the Australian Candidate for the UNICEF - Ezra and Jack Keats International Award for Excellence in Children’s Book Illustration. Just a Little Brown Dog, Dan’s Grampa and In Your Dreams are all children’s books written by Sally Morgan and were released in 1997. Other books she has illustrated include Fat and Juicy Place, Stradbroke Deamtime, The Whalers, Uncle Minah and Dirrangun, all published by HarperCollins. Big Rain Coming (see cover illustration), published by Roland Harvey Books, written by Katrina Germein and illustrated by Bronwyn Bancroft, was released in August 1999. The illustrations are gorgeous. It is a beautiful book in which everyone and everything is waiting for the rain to finally come in a remote Australian outback settlement. Another Germein-Bancroft Roland Harvey book, Leaving, was published in September 2000. Both Big Rain Coming and Leaving have been published in paperback by Penguin Books. Bronwyn recently illustrated Diane Wolkstein’s adaptation Sun Mother Wakes the World: An Australian Creation Story published in April 2004 by HarperCollins New York. It has been named to the New York Public Library’s annual list Children’s Books 2004 - 100 Titles for Reading & Sharing and will be available in Australia through HarperCollins in early 2005.
In October 2000, Bronwyn took up the third May Gibbs’ Residential Fellowship at Dromkeen, Riddell Creeks, Victoria. Supported by the May Gibbs Childrens Literature Trust, Browyn had a varied program during her three week stay, including time to work on a children’s book. Late in 1998, the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust was established to honour the work of May Gibbs, but also to offer residential fellowships to writters and illustrators of Australian children’s books. The directors of the new trust firmly believed that a national approach was necessary in attracting visitors to Nutcote, May Gibbs’ home at Neutral Bay, a suburb of Sydney, through fellowships and educational programs.
Bronwyn’s art is suitable for commercial adaptation and she has undertaken many projects for goverment agencies, museums, arts organisations and private enterprise. She was commissioned to paint a painting for IBM to represent the 2000 Olympics. Bronwyn was appointed as a Theme Designer by the NSW Centenary of Federation Committee for ‘Journey of a Nation - The Federation Parade’. This was the first national event of significance in 2001 and celebrated and acknowledged the significant historic and momentous achievements and challenges of Australia in the previous 100 years. There were up to 8000 people participating in the Parade which was broadcast live across Australia. Bronwyn was responsible for the design component of the ‘Nations within a Nation’ section which included 1 float, 4 different costume designs for 200 people, 10 props and 10 flags.
Bronwyn’s biography, by Ken Watson, appears in the Oxford Dictionary of Aboriginal Art.
Visit Bronwyn’s web site at www.bronwynbancroft.com to view examples of her art work.
GOLVAN ARTS MANAGEMENT • PO Box 766, Kew, Victoria 3101 Australia • golvan@ozemail.com.au