The impact of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic on the arts sector resulted in acute, drastic drops in employment, revenue, and events. Career maintenance and persistence in the arts during this period involved substantially altered practices, particularly in terms of professional social interactions, which are known to be essential in artistic occupations. This research uses interview data from 66 U.S.-based arts graduates during the first year of the pandemic to establish how those in early, established, and late career stages experienced their professional social interactions. The findings show that the massive shift from in-person to almost solely online work and connectivity led to a drastic decrease in professional social interactions. Findings show that early career artists have the least social capital, established artists have the most, and late career artists begin to lose social capital unless they actively maintain it. Additionally, the “event-ized” nature of scheduling and attending work interactions digitally reduced feelings of community and collegiality.

COVID-19 大流行的第一年对艺术部门的影响导致就业、收入和活动急剧下降。在此期间，艺术职业的维持和坚持涉及实践的重大改变，特别是在专业社会互动方面，这在艺术职业中是必不可少的。这项研究使用了大流行第一年来自 66 名美国艺术专业毕业生的访谈数据，以确定那些处于早期、成熟和晚期职业阶段的人如何体验他们的专业社交互动。调查结果表明，从面对面工作到几乎完全在线工作和连接的巨大转变导致专业社交互动的急剧减少。调查结果表明，早期职业艺术家的社会资本最少，成熟的艺术家拥有最多，而后期职业艺术家开始失去社会资本，除非他们积极维护它。此外，安排和参加工作互动的“事件化”性质以数字方式减少了社区和合作的感觉。