Arts-based research

Developing criteria for identifying and evaluating the quality of arts-based research in the creative and cultural industries.

Leading research

Arts-based research is part of the Research into Practice Group.

The project aimed to develop criteria for identifying and evaluating the quality of practice-based or arts-based research in the creative and cultural industries.

Background

In 2004 the Swedish government financed the prestigious Sigtuna symposium to discuss fundamental issues related to practice-based or arts-based research.

The initiative responded to Sweden’s need to maintain its competitiveness in the international academic context of both commercial and teaching-related areas.

The Swedish Secretary of Education attended the symposium and in 2005 government funding was made available through the Research Council for the creation of four Visiting Guest Professorship posts.

These four posts were created so that international specialists could visit universities and research centres in Sweden in the 2006/7 academic year and share their research on arts-based research.  

The Visiting Guest Professorship in architecture was awarded to Michael Biggs from the UK University of Hertfordshire.

Professor Biggs is internationally renowned for his activity in the area of arts-based research in art and design.

On being invited as Visiting Guest Professor in the Universities of Lund, Stockholm and Götenberg, he proposed to use the opportunity to develop his research into the nature of arts-based research in:

• art
• architecture
• and design

This subject is of importance in:

• the UK - for the purposes of research quality assessment.
• the EU - in response to the need for methodological clarity in funding applications in the cultural sector.
• national governments - for the implementation of research funding and assessment strategies based on international models of experience and best-practice.

Literature search

As part of the Arts-based research project, a literature search was undertaken in 2007.

It identified 129 items against explicit search criteria, including:

Key words

Initially the search was for 'practice-based research' or 'arts-based research'.

The derivative searches were for:

• practice-led research
• art-informed research
• practice as research
• artistic research
• artists as researchers
• other composites and Boolean keyword searches

The authors and bibliographies of the recurring works were also searched, as were the publishers, retailers and academic communities that had produced the emerging bibliographical compilation.

Search engines

The search was primarily web-based.

The generic search engines Google and Google Scholar were used and the findings were compared to the catalogues from leading publishes and retailers.

Public and private library catalogues and councils were also consulted and served to provide access to theses, journals and area reports.  

Media for search and report

The search was mainly conducted on the Internet although reference was made to hardcopies of books, journals and conference proceedings.

Computer software EndNote was used to compile and organized the information in a searchable library/database.

Full reference on each source was documented and abstracts and full papers, where available, were also attached.  

A post-project outcome of AbR was an anthology of new writings on arts-based research published in October 2010 entitled The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts.

The volume was edited by Michael Biggs and Henrik Karlsson.

Project members

Arts-based research was an international collaborative project involving the University of Hertfordshire and Lund University in Sweden.

The project was organised by:

• Prof Michael Biggs, University of Hertfordshire - project leader
• Prof Lars-Henrik Ståh, Department for Theoretical and Applied Aesthetics at Lund University

The project also received collaboration from:

• Dr Daniela Büchler, University of Hertfordshire
• Dr Gunnar Sandin, Lund University
• Dr Henrik Karlsson, Sweden

Funding

The project was funded by Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council) and Riksbanken Jubileumsfond.