Teaching museum education without the museum: A case study of collaborative virtual teaching in the age of COVID-19

Teaching virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic presented myriad challenges for teachers and students around the globe. For art museum educators, the pandemic also forced consideration of questions about the core activities of art museums, the value of museum experiences and why we come together to look at and discuss art together in these public spaces. The physical spaces of museums and direct encounters with objects that were once regarded as essentials of museum education, were now inaccessible or had limited access due to pandemic restrictions. This article presents a collaborative project between two art museum education courses and two universities developed during the pandemic as a way to explore some of these questions, design methods of engaging audiences with art and ideas from respective university collections and build new collegial relationships.