The University of Colorado Boulder’s Visual Arts Complex and Art Museum (Courtesy of Boulder Convention & Visitors Bureau)
March 13 marked the fifth anniversary of the University of Colorado Boulder’s campus closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CU Art Museum and the Center for Humanities & the Arts hosted a panel to reflect on guest’s experiences during the pandemic.
This panel discussion was inspired by the Better Days exhibition in the CU Art Museum, which explores how art can be used during difficult, uncertain times.
The discussion began with each speaker sharing personal experiences from the pandemic, highlighting the resilience people found during uncertain and emotional times. A common theme among these stories was the important role of community and the arts in navigating adversity.
Sophia Baldwin, a former CU Boulder student, was the moderator of the panel. Speaking with her were Lucy Chester – an associate professor in the Department of History, Jeanne Quinn – a professor of art and art history and Matthew McQueen – a professor of integrative physiology with a background in epistemology and biological statistics.
Chester began by explaining how contracting long COVID has changed her life in many ways. Due to the fatigue and balance issues that came with her long COVID, Chester is in a wheelchair and said that for her, working full-time, exercising and socializing are things of the past.
After describing the adaptations she has had to make, Chester says she feels obligated to speak for others who have contradicted some form of long COVID since many are too ill to do so themselves.
“The less we see these people in public spaces, the more comfortable we feel not using masks and not keeping our germs at home,” Chester said.
She also spoke about how art has helped her tolerate the intolerable. She mainly does beading and cross-stitching. When she cross-stitches, she tends to stitch trees, vines and other elements of nature.
“I think it’s partly me reaching out to nature that I can’t really access anymore,” she said.
She enjoys the meditative rhythm of these arts, but interestingly, her favorite part is her discard jar, filled with layers of knots, tangles and frayed ends.
“Everything in that jar is messy, broken, unusable and still somehow beautiful,” she said.
Matthew McQueen spoke next, describing his experience as part of the epidemiology community. He was able to offer a clinical perspective on the campus closure.
He recalled a moment in late February of 2020, when his wife, a nurse practitioner at the Wardenburg Health Center, texted him saying, “There’s so much flu, but nobody’s testing positive for flu.”
McQueen said that’s when he knew COVID was on campus.
McQueen was involved in campus preparation and deciding if CU Boulder could open back up following the pandemic.
“What I look back on is the camaraderie and everyone rolling up their sleeves,” he said. “Everyone just said ‘How can we help? Let’s pull together.’ That’s the sort of memory I try to really hold on to.”
While reflecting on how their professional life changed during the pandemic, both Quinn and McQueen had similar experiences of their professional community becoming closer than ever.
“We (the art department) were already a team, but wow, did we become a team like no other,” Quinn said.
Quinn served as the department chair for the Department of Art and Art History during COVID-19.
“We are artists, we are creative, not just with paint and wood and metal and clay, but with our minds and with our bodies and our situations,” Quinn said.
Additionally, Quinn shared what she personally had lost, yet learned from the pandemic.
“I lost a residency and an exhibition in the south of France and an exhibition in Montreal,” she said. “But I learned… what I already knew: that the most important thing is the community of people around you.”
While exploring how universities and institutions can better support and recognize the arts as a means of healing during times of uncertainty, Adele Potter, the program manager for CHA, spoke of its value.
“I think sometimes the arts don’t get as much value in the university as the businesses and science majors,” she said. “The arts, they speak to everybody in a different way. So it’s one of the most universal things, whether it’s music, art, anthropology or sewing. Those are all artistic endeavors that fit under humanities.”
For many, the lasting impacts of this pandemic still linger to this day through subjects such as missed memories.
“When I graduated, I shut my laptop and that was it,” Baldwin said. “I waited my whole life to put on that graduation cap and throw it up, but I didn’t get that. I shut my Zoom and I was done.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Claire Cohan at Claire.cohan@colorado.edu
