Arts Methodologies are the creative expression of complexity; of recognising the multiplicity of interpretations of social cohesion and reinventing them using creative means.  We think this involves embracing complexity and diversity using creative methods,

The Taking Yourselves Seriously team are engaging in interpretative work, linking people working in communities with reflective understandings of what is going on within those spaces and how the arts are working for them.

Arts Methodologies are ways of disrupting the everyday power structures that pervade society. Using arts methodologies allows us to reframe knowledge, re-situate our thinking and disrupt preconceptions in order to uncover new knowledge. Arts based research has the capacity to create new ideas as collectively we explore ways of knowing together.

Using artistic approaches allows us to consider our identities. Notions of belonging – trust – reciprocity can be understood by people through their lived experience. By locating our experience in the arts we can see it differently.  Arts based research is embodied and in practice.  Arts practice allows us to consider ways of expressing our ideas that are not in talk or writing.

The arts are an embodied form. They involve drawing, objects, music, poems and different kinds of experiences. Artistic approaches unsettle what we already know and produce different kinds of knowledge. The production of knowledge through arts becomes philosophy in action. This helps us think more deeply about ourselves.

As I began the first project blog - taking yourself seriously is a rather strong request … it means recognising that the way you work is quite special and there is something to be valued in it. Arts methodologies destabilise power structures and empower participants to re-consider their perceptions of a situation. As we begin our project work we are using arts methodologies reflexively, building knowledge and reflecting on practice as practitioners and academics.