On the Edge of Practice
Introduction
This interview, conducted by Polyphony editors Rowena Keaveny and Maggie O'Neill, explores a long-standing collaboration between artist Marie Brett, art therapist Ed Kuczaj, and art therapist John McHarg, whose work together has helped illuminate the terrain where art practice and therapeutic engagement meet. Emerging from the project On the Edge of My Sky, their dialogue offers a thoughtful examination of how creativity, care, and ethics intersect in contemporary arts and health contexts.
Initially rooted in a community arts setting at St. Raphael’s Centre for Intellectual Disability in Youghal, the project challenged conventional distinctions between roles: artist, therapist, facilitator. Over time, what began as a grassroots exhibition initiative grew into a significant site of critical reflection – raising questions around authorship, critique, support, and public display. Their collaboration gave rise to the influential article "Working on the Edge" (2011), which examined how artists and therapists might work alongside one another while honouring both shared values and necessary differences.
The themes explored then remain strikingly relevant today, as evidenced by their recent exhibition Bones of Contention (2025) at the MTU Gallery in Cork. The work sits at the intersection of personal expression and institutional structures, exploring the vulnerabilities and possibilities that arise when creative practices are made visible in public space. The studio – deliberately positioned outside clinical settings – became a site of creative ambition and trust, where artwork could develop without labels or expectations. In turn, this reframed the ethical and aesthetic questions surrounding who is permitted to be seen as an artist, and under what terms. We invite readers and listeners to view a slideshow of the Bones of Contention exhibition, available following the interview below.
What unfolds in this interview is a conversation informed by mutual respect and sustained inquiry. Rather than resolving the tensions between disciplines, it embraces them as fertile ground for ongoing exploration. The dialogue offers insight into both the history of a specific project and broader questions that continue to inform the field: How do we balance artistic challenge with emotional support? How can reflective practice evolve across time and changing roles? And what responsibilities do we carry when facilitating art that may be both personally transformative and publicly exposed?
In offering this conversation, we invite listeners to engage with the dynamic, sometimes uncomfortable, but always necessary work of co-creating in spaces where creativity meets care – a practice that Brett, Kuczaj, and McHarg continue to navigate "on the edge" of established boundaries.
Contact email address: smilingdogproject@gmail.com
Interview
"Bones of Contention" Exhibition
Marie Brett
Marie Brett is a visual artst working across filmic, immersive multimedia installaton, print, book and live events, with artworks presented in both gallery and temporary, off-site contexts. Conceptually her work is about profound human experiences often involving trauma, (ill)health or varied forms of loss or injustce. Re-currently the artst collaborates with other creatives, scholars, field specialists and community members with challenging life experience (including bereaved parents, people living with a dementia, trafficked and enslaved individuals, young people from institutional care, and family carers). Her socially engaged practice is rooted in health and community care contexts.
Recent work includes a nine country global justice commission and large scale installation exhibited at Brussel’s European Parliament; a suit of performance and filmic works responding to Irish capacity legislation created with dementia carers, a dancer and The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, premiered by IMMA; and a collaboration with a community of human trafficking, modern-day slavery and drug-farming, to create a big immersive installation spanning twelve rooms and taxi-cab, with a huge on-line archive, presented by Cork Midsummer Festival.
Brett’s artwork is held in na-onal and interna-onal art collections including The Arts Council /An Chomhairle Ealaíon, and IMMA, The Irish Museum of Modern Art. She has initiated and led considerable national art projects, where the ethics of risk and trust are imbedded within her practice, and she has received numerous commissions and awards. Brett has toured two national exhibitions (Amulet / E.gress), each with extensive public engagement programmes; and she is a sought after arts consultant and artist mentor; with writing published in Ireland, the UK and Finland.
The artist is a graduate of Goldsmiths, London University, with a MA (distinction) and BA (1st
class) visual arts degrees.
Websites:
www.mariebrett.ie
Amulet www.amulets.ie
Yes, But Do You Care? www.yesbutdoyoucare.ie
Day Of The Straws www.dayofthestraws.ie
Instagram www.instagram.com/_marie_brett_
Facebook www.facebook.com/MarieBrett.artist
Twitter / X www.x.com/mariebrett1
Ed Kuczaj
.jpg?1750366251433)
Ed Kuczaj is former Head of Department of Arts in Health and Education at MTU Crawford College, retiring in 2017. Prior to this position he worked in the NHS in the UK, as a clinician and Arts Therapy manager in the area of learning disabilities.
He has published a number of articles and contributed to books in this area, particularly around the area of loss and bereavement. During his time in the UK, he was a member of the British Association of Art Therapists and also Vice Chair for a number of years.
Having been involved in Art Therapy training in the UK, he took up the role of course leader on the then PGDip in Art Therapy in Cork in 2000. This then moved to MA level and Ed became Head of Department.
Since retiring he has been involved in the Cork/ BVI Art Therapy Initiative, which worked in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, shortly after the occurrence of hurricane Irma in 2017, working in schools and with community groups there.
He was also chair of the Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists in 2018 – 2020 and is still involved in the association's work. He also works as supervisor and is an advisor for the Soearth Project in Kill, Co Kildare, as well as Academic Council Chair at the Children's Therapy Centre.
Ed actively engages in his own creativity through photography/ painting and sculpture and is a current member of the Mòr Artists Collective in East Cork/ West Waterford.
John McHarg
.jpg?1750366158530)
John is a visual artist and Art Therapist, who graduated from the Cork School of Art in 1974. John received the Albrecht Durer Award for graphics and established Reliance Printing Press in 1974, from where he published prints and wood/lino cuts of both his own work, and the work of other artists.
John has exhibited nationally and internationally for over thirty years. His solo shows include exhibitions at the Triskel Arts Centre Cork, Crawford Art Gallery and The Searson Gallery in Midleton. He has been selected for international group shows, including ‘Irish Art Now’ Turin, Italy; ‘Drawing Eire’ Shanghai, China; ‘Drawing Connections’ Sienna, Italy. John’s selected national group shows include ‘EVA+’ Limerick City Art Gallery and ‘The James Joyce Centenary’ in Dublin. He has also participated in various arts festivals including Galway Arts Festival and Cork MidSummer Festival, and shown in several Cork galleries including Sirius Arts Centre, The Lavit Gallery, Gallery 44, The Vision Centre and Tig Fili.
Having always been drawn to the experience of collaboration, John has worked with other artists, poets, writers, musicians and performance artists, creating broadsheets, posters, vinyl sleeves on numerous projects, always exploring their shared interests. John has also worked as artist in residence in various health care settings, and as an art tutor in Youthreach settings. These experiences developed an interest in art therapy, leading John to qualify as an Art Therapist in 2005.