Brett S. Poza received her BFA from Rhode Island School Of Design, an MA in Expressive Art Therapy from Lesley University and an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt). She worked as a rehabilitation supervisor and art therapist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for many years, using a studio based and recovery oriented approach to art therapy.
Nature, the manipulation of tactile materials, and the use of a camera as sketchbook, drive her practice, which is grounded in observation and drawing. As an art therapist, facilitator and teacher, Brett ran workshops and classes for adults, primarily in locked settings. She found that the structure of long term residential facilities created an opportunity to develop individual strengths in a unique way. The places where she worked were highly supportive of the work she did, providing materials and equipment for sculpture, creative woodworking, pyrography, furniture building and restoration, quilt making, felting, weaving, painting, drawing, digital photography, creative writing, art history and the use of technology for basic graphic design and layouts. She found it motivating to help people learn skills that they could continue to develop independently. Secondary to the processing and production of works was the development of venues to show pieces outside of the locked environment, as well as the creation of a revolving website gallery sponsored by MassPRA ( Massachusetts Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association ) and a short film made by students from Berklee College of Music. The goal was to have people rendered invisible by the mental health system, become visible through their work.
Brett has recently shown her work in the New Talent Show at The Alpha Gallery and more recently the Summer Selections Show. This summer she was also in a group show at The Boston Sculptor's Gallery. Both galleries are in the SoWA district in Boston. Prior to this she was part of group show at MassMOCA in North Adams, at the Doran Gallery at Massart, and at the Lyceum Gallery at The Derryfield School in Manchester, NH. She will be in a collective show about traveling to Cuba in the Student Life Gallery at Massart in October, and in a solo show at Umass Medical School in Worcester in December. Before returning to school she had shown in galleries in Providence, RI; Mesa, AZ; and with the Center For Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. Photographs of the disused areas of the (recently destroyed) Westborough State Hospital, including the power house and what used to be part of the Lyman School for Boys, were on permanent display at the Central Offices of the Department of Mental Health in Boston for many years.
Her name is from Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, after the character Lady Brett Ashley. She is in fact married to a matador, and lives outside Boston with her family, one greyhound, 4 cats, 5 hens and one perpetually hungry Oscar.
Brett S. Poza threadeater@gmail.com @theboneartist
