BERNARD CANAVAN
Mobile: 07960976025
bcanavan@hotmail.com
BACKGROUND AND WORK
14 July 1944 Born Ireland
1947 - 1959 Grew up in Edgeworthstown, Co Longford.
1963 - 1964 Worked as an illustrator in a display and advertising agency in Dublin.
1964 - 1971 Designed theatre sets and posters for The Roundhouse and Unity Theatre, the Oxford Playhouse - one poster was included in a volume, 'Graphis', of the best international designs for 1977. Drew for most of the underground press in London.
1977 - 1978 Worked as a film poster designer for Roe-Downton Advertising, Wardour Street, London.
1980 - 1990 Set up Island History Trust, recording the lives of people on the Isle of Dogs.
April 1980 Set up an 'Irish in Britain' weekend history workshop at the Metropolitan University, London.
From the 1970s to the present Taught Irish History and History of Art at various adult education colleges in London.
EDUCATION
1962 – 1963Attended Oxford College of Art to study graphics, photography, lithography and typography.
Sept 1965 Won Lowes-Dickenson medal and scholarship for painting.
1971 – 1973 State Mature Scholarship to Ruskin College, Oxford. Qualification: Oxford Diploma in Social Studies
1973 – 1976 Worcester College, Oxford. Qualification: BA hons. Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
WRITING
1978 - 1979 Wrote and illustrated 'Economists for Beginners' for 'Writers and Readers' Publishers. Translated into German, Portuguese, French and Japanese and Urdu.
Columnist for 'Ri Ra', 'The Irish World' and 'Voice of the Unions'.
Essays including 'Storytellers and Writers; Irish identity in emigrant labourers' autobiographies 1870 – 1970' in Patrick O'Sullivan's 'The Creative Migrant' (Leicester University Press 1994) and 'Losing the Emigrant in the Diaspora' 2007 for Cricklewood Homeless Concern.
1979 - 1980 Illustrated Eia Ansen's 'Psychiatry for Beginners',