International Journal of Education & the Arts

This essay explores the nature and importance of field trips as sites for artistic development, intellectual fulfillment, and pedagogical inspiration. The author weaves personal reflections from a professional field trip and experience teaching art education online with creative and pedagogical references to make a case for experiential learning as professional development. At a time when we experience so much of the world through screens, when school field trips are in decline due to budget cuts, and when professional development is more focused on assessment than intellectual development, this piece encourages readers to imagine how art educators, and our work with students, might be affected if we permitted ourselves and were supported in our desires to step outside our classrooms and have our own adventures in learning.