Distance-learning studies have seen an incredible growth in the last 20 years. The majority of these were at postgraduate level. Fewer were undergraduate and even fewer were in initial teacher education training. Within these, there are even fewer examples of art education courses as it was frequently argued that the experiential aspect of these courses could not be translated into a remote learning-teaching environment. Nevertheless, Higher Education is moving rapidly toward an expansion of distance learning. The article discusses characteristics of online learning in the field of art education for elementary school teachers. It focuses on lessons learnt during the COVID-19 Emergency Remote Teaching in the context of preservice elementary generalist teachers and how the pandemic has accelerated the "digitalization" turn. It discusses opportunities for experiential, collaborative and active learning that are transformative enough to overturn stereotypes and promote perceptions of self-efficacy in art learning. Further, it affirms necessary aspects of presence in an online environment - social, cognitive and teacher presence - to achieve successful student outcomes for non-art specialists. Drawing from pedagogy, the implications of the study offer policy recommendations to Higher Educational Institutions on how to support both teacher educators and pre-service teachers in the context of art learning.