The future of arts education is at stake. This paper attempts to examine the future of arts education via the responses of a qualitative survey, student samples, individual interviews, and research regarding arts education as essential education for all learners during a pandemic and beyond. The sudden decree that all attendance at public and private schools would be canceled from mid-March to the end of April, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then until the end of the 2020 school year, left students, teachers, parents, and schools in shock. What did this decree mean for the future of arts education? Arts education is defined in Washington State basic education law as an essential academic learning requirement (EALR) since 1993 (Washington State Legislature [WSL], 1993), and currently defined as dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts.