How Art Educators are Responding to the Pandemic

By Audrey Willius

Five years ago, COVID shutdown museums along with the rest of the world. Though we’ve returned to in person museum-going in the years since, people’s experiences surrounding museums have changed dramatically. This project investigates how art museum educators are responding to the long term effects of the pandemic in their everyday practice.

Throughout the capstone, I had the opportunity to talk to a number of art educators about their own experiences with the pandemic and edit our conversations into a 35 minute podcast. I explored how these educators are using wellness practices and updated critical frameworks to welcome students to their museums and provide opportunities for open ended growth. Along with my fellow Student Museum Educators at the Smith College Museum of Art, I imagined new ways to use these strategies to respond to the disconnection and trauma of the pandemic.

Thank you to Megan Wilson Krznarich of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Lauren Emond of the Columbus Museum of Art, and Gina Hall at the Smith College Museum of Art and my fellow Student Museum Educators for sitting down for interviews. This project would not have been possible without Abril Navarro and Travis Grandy from Smith’s ITS and my MUX 300 professors Jessica Nicoll and Charlene Shang-Miller.