EDITORIAL

摘要

Welcome to Volume 3:1 of the Journal of Applied Arts and Health (JAAH). This is a very special issue with inaugural guest editor Professor Shaun McNiff. This exciting issue brings together innovative practitioners and some of the leaders in the field of art-based research (ABR) in one place at the one time!This issue has a different feel to all previous issues of JAAH in that authors are expressly challenging the notion of research within the arts. The field frequently borrows research methodologies from other disciplines such as the social sciences and even science itself. We are reminded here in this issue of JAAH that the arts do something quite different and they need a voice of research that is both honoured and honourable in academic parlances. When the arts are applied to health or make health or well-being claims we frequently find ourselves resorting to the 'scientific' for evidence when it may be that if we were open enough to the voice of art then the many answers and possibilities might become immediately apparent. It is also quite possible that art and science are not mutually exclusive fields and therein presents a challenge for all.