ABSTRACT
The first year of COVID-19 was marked by uncertainty, distancing, and disruption of the spaces where people worked and places they call home. This chapter considers the impact of COVID-19 on alumni of higher education arts degrees in the United States with an analysis of 66 semi-structured interviews conducted in November 2020 through March 2021. The interviews demonstrate that adapting to a compulsory transition of workspace has rippling impacts on creative workers’ larger ecosystem. Major factors affecting interviewees’ experiences during COVID-19 include acquiring new workspace, accessing equipment and technical needs, balancing work and domestic life, and the intensification of the digital aspects of work. Interviewee experiences varied considerably as each domain of infrastructure factors was further complicated or made easier by a creative worker’s arts discipline, location, occupation, career stage, skills, risk-aversion, resilience, and family composition.
