ABSTRACT
Accepted as a viable research methodology today, the emergence of art-based research (ABR) can be traced to the same collision of academic disciplines, social identities, and challenges to mainstream scientific and cultural institutions that began in the 1960s and 1970s and gave birth to the profession of art therapy. The standard-bearers of art-based research are found at the intersections of qualitative research and the arts. Art therapists with a background in visual art are familiar with the concept of a portfolio, usually comprised of selected works that demonstrate skill and artistic vision in a range of media. Online multimedia electronic journals are able to move past the expense and limits of print publication with links to exhibition art, videotaped art performance, integrations of voice-over, music, art imagery, and dance accompanied by research text support. Art-based theories converge creatively from the interaction of focal data and the mediating tools of inquiry within a rigorously applied practice of artistic thinking.
