This document discusses arts-based research in the creative arts therapies. It defines arts-based research as systematic inquiry using creative art making by the researcher or co-researchers. The creative arts therapies are defined as using art modalities like art, music, dance, and drama therapy to improve health outcomes. The philosophical position of arts-based research in these fields is that art can elicit meaningful findings and amplify client voices in a way that is congruent with artistic processes. However, there are also ethical issues to consider, and arts-based research may not be appropriate for all research needs in these fields. Key readings and an upcoming conference on this topic are also mentioned.

1. Arts-based Research in the
Creative Arts Therapies
Gioia Chilton, ATR-BC
Ph.D. Candidate
Dexel University

2. ‘Arts-based research:’
an umbrella term
• A/r/tography
• Alternative forms of
representation
• Art as inquiry
• Art practice as research
• Art-based enquiry
• Art-Based Inquiry
• Art-Based Research
• Artistic Inquiry
• Arts based research
• Arts based social
research (ABSR)
• Arts in qualitative
research
• Arts-based educational
research (ABER)
• Arts-based health
research (ABHR)
• Arts-Based Research
Practices
• Arts-Informed Inquiry
• Arts–Informed Research
• Critical Arts-Based
Inquiry
• Inquiry in visual arts
• Performative Inquiry
• Practice-Based Research
• Research-Based Art
(RBA)
• Research-Based Practice
• Scholartistry
• Transformative Inquiry
through art

3. Arts-based Research in the Creative
Arts Therapies
• What is Arts-based Research?
Systematic inquiry using creative art making on the part of the
researcher or co-researchers. Include use of kind of art form,
including literature, drama, dance, music, & visual art
• What are the Creative Art Therapies?
The use of arts modalities by trained professionals for the purpose of
ameliorating disability and illness and optimizing health. Includes disciplines
of Art Therapy, Music Therapy, Dance-Movement Therapy, Drama Therapy,
Poetry Therapy, Psychodrama, etc, all with various rigorous professional
credentialing.

4. Arts-based Research in the Creative
Arts Therapies
• Arts-based Research:
Systematic inquiry using creative art making on the part of the researcher or co-researchers.
Include use of kind of art form, including literature, drama, dance, music, & visual art
• Creative Art therapies:
The use of arts modalities by trained professionals for the purpose of ameliorating disability
and illness and optimizing health. Treatment outcomes include, for example, improving
communication and expression, and increasing physical, emotional, cognitive and/or social
functioning.

5. Philosophical position
• Most human beings have an essential capacity to create
meaning through artistic processes, and because of this,
throughout history the arts have served as an essential
purveyor of knowledge (Gerber et al., 2012, Kenny, 2002).
• Creating art aids in understanding, examining, and transforming
human experience (Finley, 2003; McNiff, 1998, 2011).
• Emotional-cognitive, spiritual-aesthetic, and embodied
knowings are identified as both real and of value (McNiff, 1998).
• Aesthetic knowledge is valuable in accessing shifting inner
experience (Hogan & Pink, 2010).
• Necessary knowledge includes artistic expressions of lived
moments that trigger life, movement, and openness; emotional
and multi-sensorial communication of artistic knowledge elicits
change (Finley, 2008; Kenny, 2002; Neilsen, 2004).

6. Philosophical position
Expands traditional definitions of beauty
to emphasize an aesthetic that is
participatory and inclusive
(Malchiodi, 2006, Finley, 2010).
On principle generates knowledge
through art-making practices and
processes, aims to elicit positive
change in readers/viewers and
participants, and practices methods
that are culturally responsive (Brown,
2008; McLean & Kelly, 2010).
.

7. The takeaway:
Arts-based research can ethically evoke
findings and amplify client’s voices in research
on subjective, intersubjective,
social/emotional, relational, spiritual and
artistic matters and is congruent with core
artistic processes in creative arts therapies
 There are significant ethical issues to address
 ABR is appropriate for SOME but not all the research needs in
the creative arts therapy community.

8. Arts-based research as a pedagogical approach for studying
intersubjectivity in the Creative Arts Therapies:

10. Arts-based Research in the Creative Arts
Therapies Essential Readings:
• Barone, T., & Eisner, E. W. (2012). Arts Based Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
• Boydell, et al (2012) Ethical Challenges in Arts-based Health Research IJCAIP Journal, June, 2012 Issue 11,
"Ethics and Arts Based Methods in Health Research"
• Brown, C. (2008). The importance of making art for the creative arts therapist: An artistic inquiry. The Arts in
Psychotherapy, 35(3), 201-208.
• Finley, S. (2011). Critical arts-based inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of
Qualitative Research (4 ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
• Jung, C. G. (2009). The red book: Liber novus. New York: WW Norton & Co.
• Kapitan, L. (2010). Art-Based Inquiry: An emerging paradigm in art therapy. Introduction to Art Therapy
Research. New York, Routledge: 161-182.
• Knowles, J. G., & Cole, A. L. (2008). Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives,
methodologies, examples, and issues: Sage Publications, Inc.
• Leavy, P. (2009). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice. New York: The Guilford Press.
• McNiff, S. (1998). Art-based Research. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
• Hervey, L. W. (2000). Artistic Inquiry in Dance/Movement Therapy: Creative Alternatives for Research
Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas

11. Upcoming Conference
Knowledge through Performance: Arts Based Research and Drama Therapy
September 26 - 29, 2013, Montreal, QC, Canada