Art-Based Research
Art therapy and all of the other creative arts therapies have promoted themselves as ways of expressing what cannot be conveyed in conventional language. Why is it that creative arts therapists fail to apply this line of thinking to research? In this exciting and innovative book, Shaun McNiff, one of the field's pioneering educators and authors, breaks new ground in defining and inspiring art-based research. He illustrates how practitioner-researchers can become involved in art-based inquiries during their educational studies and throughout their careers, and shows how new types of research can be created that resonate with the artistic process.Clearly and cogently expressed, the theoretical arguments are illustrated by numerous case examples, and the final part of the book provides a wealth of ideas and thought provoking questions for research.This challenging book will prove invaluable to creative art therapy educators, students, and clinicians who wish to approach artistic inquiry as a way of conducting research. It will also find a receptive audience within the larger research community where there is a rising commitment to expanding the theory and practice of research. Integrating artistic and scientific procedures in many novel ways, this book offers fresh and productive visions of what research can be.'Sean McNiff has written what may be the most important expressive art therapy book of this decade. Art-Based Research presents a long-awaited model for studing the process of art making as therapy - whether it be visual arts, dance, music, or drama. Every page will excite and inspire its readers to think about how to conduct research on art therapy, music therapy, dance therapy and drama therapy as well as intermodal expressive therapy. Too long have the expressive arts therapies focused on the product of sessions with clients. Through this book McNiff has shown us that our knowledge of creative potential inherent to the arts holds the key to how the arts heal and guide us in developing research questions which will help us understand the creative process in therapy. Numerous examples and references from arts therapists will help the novice researcher in developing ideas and inspire the experienced researcher, deepening our understanding of why the arts therapies are powerful tools for healing. This volume will become a standard text in expressive arts therapy training programs throughout the world.'- Cathy Malchiodi, Director of the Institute for the Arts and Health in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Editor of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association