Re-conceptualizing ‘impact’ in art-based health research

This article explores the notion of ‘impact’ in art-based health research (ABHR), and how we might re-conceptualize it through the kind of work ABHR ‘does’ in generating and disseminating knowledge. We explore ‘impact’ from a critical qualitative perspective, leveraging findings from a study based on interviews with ABHR researchers/artists/trainees. We focus on their reflections related to ‘impact’, and informed by our own experiences of producing/evaluating ABHR in diverse genres. We argue for a conceptualization of impact that moves beyond an exclusive positivist and biomedical concern with whether certain ABHR ‘interventions’ (defined here as processes/products of an ABHR study) work in generalizable ways, to one that focuses on context as well as processes of development, implementation and engagement. How will we know if a particular ABHR project ‘worked’? What kinds of ‘work’ do the products of ABHR do? How might we, or should we, tease out ‘process’ from ‘product’? In exploring these questions, we problematize what is meant by ‘impact’ and what we can expect from the knowledge generated and its translation via varied artistic genres.