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Art-Based Research (McNiff, 1998a) introduced the idea of using artistic expressions by researchers as ways of knowing and methods of inquiry as distinguished from approaching art made by subjects as data which are interpreted by discursive methods, a practice that has been widely used in various disciplines studying human behaviour. Popularisation of the idea of art-based research (ABR) has diverted attention from its new and distinct qualities together with the challenges they present. Examples drawn from four decades of integrate examinations of personal and empirical phenomena encourages a revisiting of social science research typologies and the training of researchers.With the publication of Art-Based Research in 1998, I expected more challenge and even disbelief that someone would go so far as to link art-making and the process of painting, dancing, singing, acting and creative writing with research methods. Instead, there was a receptive response, a steady growth of writings and new books on the subject, and the international recognition of this approach to research by many masters and doctoral programmes. As an artist familiar with the status of an academic outsider over decades of applying the arts to therapy, psychology, education, leadership and other fields, this embrace of artistic ways of knowing and inquiry was new and surprising.What is art-based research and where does it belong? I define art-based research as involving the researcher in some form of direct artmaking as a primary mode of systematic inquiry. In my experience the most pervasive and useful examples include studies which examine and perfect methods of therapeutic practice. Researchers experiment with artistic ways of working rather than just describe their observations of others. Often art-based research will combine personal inquiry with clinical practice involving others, but the defining feature involves a significant commitment to the former.For example, I and my students are involved in ongoing studies of how to use creative and expressive movement as a way of interpreting visual art works and how the body helps us access ways of knowing that differ from verbal interpretation (McNiff, 2009). Visual art expressions are more than narrative and verbal ideas, so *

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