Knowing what is known: education, training and research issues in applied arts for health and well-being

Much of the work of artists relies on tacit or inert understanding of their craft and therefore communicating knowledge is not necessarily easy or straightforward. This presents many challenges for arts-based researchers. It also presents pedagogical and andragogical challenges involved in developing appropriate education to prepare artists to work in the applied arts field. Arts practitioners have ways of knowing about themselves as artists and it is argued in this paper that these have grown out of their own personally significant experiences. The ways in which knowledge is rendered also appears to be based in practical experience – that is, in particular communities of practice. Artists may typically express values and concepts that are practice-based, are difficult to express in theoretical terms and reflect what is deemed by them as desirable or preferable conditions for the execution of their artform. It appears that these socially constructed ways of knowing are formed in practice and through practice as craft-based meanings. It also appears that these craft-based ways of knowing are founded on particular meanings inherent in practice which are often difficult to communicate. By drawing upon the author’s own original research into actor training, this paper attempts to capture the particular types of knowledge artists possess and why these may present challenges in the area of applied arts and health education, training and research. In doing so, the paper also examines the fundamental question of what represents ‘evidence’ in arts-based research – knowing what is known