Bronwyn Bancroft (born 1958) is an Indigenous Australian artist, notable for being the first Australian fashion designer invited to show her work in Paris. Born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, and trained in Canberra and Sydney, Bancroft worked as a fashion designer, and is an artist, illustrator, and arts administrator. In 1985 Bancroft established a shop called Designer Aboriginals, selling fabrics made by Indigenous artists including herself. She was a founding member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative. Art work by Bancroft is held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of Western Australia. She has provided art work for over 20 children's books, including Stradbroke Dreaming by writer and activist Oodgeroo Noonuccal and books by artist and writer Sally Morgan. She has also received design commissions, including one for the exterior of a sports centre in Sydney. With a long history of involvement in community activism and arts administration, Bancroft has served as a board member for the National Gallery of Australia. Her painting Prevention of AIDS (1992) was used in a campaign to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in Australia. As of 2010, Bancroft sits on the boards of copyright collection agency Viscopy and Tranby Aboriginal College, as well as being on the Artists Board at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronwyn_Bancroft

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1279 BC:

According to estimations believed by most Egyptologists today, Ramesses II became Pharaoh of Egypt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses%C2%A0II

1223:

Mongol invasions: Mongol forces defeated a combined army of Kiev, Galich, and the Cumans on the banks of the Kalchik River in present-day Ukraine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Kalka_River

1669:

Citing poor eyesight, English naval administrator and Member of Parliament Samuel Pepys recorded his last entry in his diary, one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pepys

1889:

The South Fork Dam near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, US, failed, unleashing a torrent of 18.1 million cubic meters (4.8 billion gallons) of water that killed over 2,200 people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood

1981:

An organized mob of police and government-sponsored paramilitias began burning the public library in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, destroying over 97,000 unique books and manuscripts in one of the violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of 20th Century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Jaffna_library

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

sans (prep): Without, lacking http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sans

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Talk not so much ... of the great old masters, who but painted and chisell’d. Study not only their productions. There is a still higher school for him who would kindle his fire with coal from the altar of the loftiest and purest art. It is the school of all grand actions and grand virtues, of heroism, of the death of patriots and martyrs — of all the mighty deeds written in the pages of history — deeds of daring, and enthusiasm, devotion, and fortitude. --Walt Whitman http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman