Reflections on Distance Learning and Quarantine in Spring 2020: The Oxbow School's Pandemic Story

• Published in: Art education (Reston) Vol. 74; no. 6; pp. 24 - 27
• Main Authors: Broughton, Megan, Thorson, Chris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02-11-2021
• Subjects: Adjustment (to Environment); Art Activities; Assignments; Coping; COVID-19; Educational Technology; Electronic Publishing; Experiential Learning; High School Students; Inquiry; Online Courses; Pandemics; Periodicals; Residential Programs; Resilience (Psychology); School Closing; Technology Uses in Education; Visual Arts; California
• ISSN: 0004-3125
• DOI: 10.1080/00043125.2021.1954475

Located in Napa, California, the Oxbow School is a 1-semester boarding program for visual arts, critical inquiry, self-discovery, and community. Oxbow's pandemic story concentrates on a series of assignments designed to help students cope with the transition to emergency online instruction amid isolation and uncertainty. The images illustrating this article are excerpted from Oxbow's "Quaranzines," two online publications that celebrated student work and reflections. Curated by Oxbow faculty, the publications were playful takes on the zine (short for "magazine") art form and its ethos of do-it-yourself publishing and self-aware content. These digital zines shared students' philosophies for coping via creativity, vulnerability, and humor.