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Bronagh Lawson's Biography

Bronagh was born in Newtownards and brought up in Portaferry and Strangford, Co. Down, Northern Ireland. In the eighties, she left her home to explore life in another context. She completed a Foundation Diploma at Bristol Polytechnic and obtained a first-class degree in Textiles and Fashion from Winchester School of Art.

As one of ‘Thatcher's children’ on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, she started her own business in London, selling limited edition knitwear and jewellery. Awarded the Calvin Klein - Harvey Nichol Fulbright award in 1991 for excellence in Fashion, she went to study for four months at Parsons School of Design in New York City.

Bronagh returned to Northern Ireland in 1992 but unable to settle in the insular environment, left for Zaragoza, Spain, were she designed and made costumes for a Ballet troupe. Back home again in 1994, she taught art to a group of teenagers, before embarking on a formal business training with the NI Small Business Institute and the Townsend Enterprise Park. She has now been working for the last 12 years as a Training and Business Consultant in areas of multiple, severe deprivation in Belfast and the border counties, using her creative mind and professional business skills for a wider social purpose. During this time, she has kept up her ‘purely’ artistic practice in sketch books of her travels in Europe and Asia.

In the summer of 2005, she took a course in Etching at the Belfast Print Workshop (BPW) because she wanted to learn a new way of ‘downloading’ her creative thoughts. The course gave her an addiction to Etching, the output of which she has been showing in a number of exhibitions at the BPW. At the end of 2008 Bronagh, had a one-woman exhibition at the Clotworthy Arts Centre in Antrim.

Bronagh Lawson is currently Artist-in-Residence at the City East Business Centre where she is working on a new body of work; some selected pieces will start the City East Art Collection. During her residency she will work on a number of projects, the first of which is ON THE EDGE. Bronagh was attracted to the residency opportunity because it links together her artist practice and 13 years of consultancy experience working on social development projects mainly in interface areas.

Exhibitions