Art education during the COVID-19 pandemic: the journey across a changing landscape

Abstract The field of art education has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in complex ways. Art educators have been challenged with teaching visual arts skills, practices, and concepts, to students in virtual classrooms using non-conventional means. Their principal goal has been to provide quality education in the visual arts for all students. They recognize that having a visual arts education impacts the quality of life of everyone and their ability to understand and communicate in our complex world. In their efforts to provide meaningful and effective education, art educators have had to manage new instructional delivery systems and to ensure the health and safety and social emotional learning of their students and themselves in their educational spaces. They responded by using social media, video conferencing, and other digital technology to deliver instruction. The National Art Education Association provided a wealth of digital resources to support virtual instruction during this time. These resources enabled art educators to successfully address the educational needs of their students. The long-term impact of the pandemic will require research to understand the nature of the impact of the pandemic on education and how educational policy needs to be adjusted to reflect the new post-pandemic educational landscape