Arts-based research is an umbrella term for many different approaches that combine scholarly inquiry and the arts. Methods tap into artistic process as a primary mode of inquiry creating various forms of art to collect data, conduct analysis, and/or represent research. Such qualitative research makes sense of, or interprets phenomena in their natural settings and in terms of the meanings people bring to them. It locates the observer-researcher in the world and consists of a set of interpretative, material practices that make the world visible. According to Eisner (2008),” a contribution the arts make to knowledge has to do with the provision of a fresh perspective so that our old habits of mind do not dominate our reactions with stock responses. What we seek are new ways with which to perceive and interpret the world, ways that make vivid realities that would otherwise go unknown.”
