The overarching purpose of the digital roundtable discussion series were to gain a better
understanding of participants’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and effects of physical
distancing on their work in arts and learning. The first series of digital roundtable discussions took place
in March-April 2020 and a follow up series occurred in May 2020. At that time, arts and learning
stakeholders were adjusting to the early phases of the pandemic characterized by province or city-wide
lockdowns, physical-distancing, and learning how to pivot to carry out their work remotely and/or
virtually. As an extension of this work, in November-December 2020, CNAL hosted a third series of
digital roundtable discussions entitled, “Navigating arts and learning through a global crisis: building
digital capacity and connections.” The objective was to understand if and how the experiences of artists,
arts educators, and arts organizations had changed after enduring six more months of the pandemic.
More specifically, these digital roundtables examined how participants had been carrying out virtual
programming over the last six to nine months, the technology used to support their programs, and how
these individuals envisioned their work moving forward in a post-pandemic world.