John Dann was born in Montreal in 1951.  At age fourteen he had decided on a career in art.  He left school at the age of sixteen and attended the Montreal Museum School of Art.  At age eighteen he traveled to Italy where he briefly attended the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Carrara, before leaving the school to work in foundries and marble ateliers.  He worked with the artist, Gonzalo Fonseca, for two years in both Italy and New York.