🔎 What it is

Arts-Based Research is a type of qualitative research that uses art forms — photos, drawings, music, poetry, performance, film, storytelling — to collect, analyze, and/or share knowledge.

👉 The key idea: some human experiences are hard to capture with just numbers or even words.
Art can reveal feelings, stories, and insights that ordinary surveys or interviews might miss.

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🛠️ Methods of Arts-Based Research (with Examples)

1) Photovoice

• Participants take photos to represent their daily experiences.
• Then they discuss the meaning behind those photos.

💡 Example: Homeless youth take pictures of “barriers to safety” in their city (locked bathrooms, crowded shelters). These photos are shared with policymakers to push for change.

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2) Poetry / Narrative Writing

• Research data (like interview transcripts) is reshaped into poetry or short stories.
• This form highlights emotions and hidden meanings in people’s words.

💡 Example: Survivors of a natural disaster are interviewed. A researcher turns their words into poems that express grief, resilience, and hope. These poems are later performed at a community memorial.

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3) Performance / Theater

• Stories or themes from research are turned into plays, skits, or monologues.
• Performances allow wider audiences to see, feel, and connect with the findings.

💡 Example: Refugees’ experiences are transformed into a stage performance. The play is shown to the public and policy leaders to build empathy and push for more supportive policies.

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4) Visual Arts (Painting, Drawing, Collage)

• Participants create artwork (drawings, paintings, collages) that represent their experiences.
• The artwork itself is data, and discussions around it add depth.

💡 Example: Hospital patients draw pictures about how they feel during treatment. Some draw storms, others sunshine — revealing emotional states that surveys might not capture.

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5) Music and Dance

• Songs, rhythms, or dances can carry deep cultural meaning.
• Researchers may use them as data, or co-create performances with participants.

💡 Example: Indigenous communities use traditional songs in a research project about cultural resilience. The songs are recorded and analyzed as both cultural heritage and research findings.

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📌 Why Use Arts-Based Research?

1. Accessibility
   • Art speaks to the heart. Findings can reach people who may not read academic reports.
   • Policymakers, communities, and the general public can engage emotionally with the work.
2. Expression Beyond Words
   • Some experiences are too painful, complex, or abstract to describe in plain language.
   • Art gives participants another way to express themselves.
3. Empowerment
   • Participants become creators, not just “subjects.”
   • They take ownership of their stories and how they are represented.
4. Capturing Complexity
   • Art can hold contradictions, emotions, and nuance in ways that charts cannot.

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🧾 Example: Arts-Based Research in Action

Topic: Experiences of refugee children in school.

1. Data collection:
   • Children are invited to draw pictures of “a good school day” and “a hard school day.”
   • They also take photos of things in their school that help or hurt learning.
2. Analysis:
   • Researchers and children sit together to discuss the drawings and photos.
   • Themes emerge: kindness from teachers, feeling excluded in language class, safe spaces like the library.
3. Presentation:
   • The children’s artwork and photos are displayed in a community art gallery.
   • Teachers and school officials attend.
   • Instead of just reading numbers, they see and feel the children’s experiences.
4. Impact:
   • The school adds a peer-language support program.
   • Teachers receive new training on inclusion.

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⚖️ Strengths vs. Challenges

Strengths
✅ Engages people emotionally.
✅ Gives participants control of their own stories.
✅ Produces results that are easy to share with broad audiences.

Challenges
❌ Harder to analyze systematically (a poem doesn’t fit into a spreadsheet).
❌ Some academic audiences may not take it as seriously.
❌ Requires sensitivity to avoid misusing people’s creative expressions.

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🗣️ Layperson’s Takeaway

Arts-Based Research = using art to understand people’s lives.

• Photos, poems, plays, paintings, songs — all can be “data.”
• Art helps people express things they can’t always say.
• It makes research more human, creative, and impactful.

👉 Quick way to explain:

“Sometimes numbers and interviews aren’t enough. Arts-Based Research uses photos, drawings, plays, or poems to capture the human side of experience and share it with others