Mariana Nunez — Hairspray, digital photographs

Galleries close and museums shut down, but art never takes a break — even during a pandemic.

Pacific museum studies students in late February opted to create a coronavirus-themed “pop-up” art exhibition for a mid-semester project. The pandemic became more serious and much of the Stockton Campus, including the Reynolds Gallery, had to close for the health and safety of the Pacific community.

The move to distance learning did not thwart the students, however. The result is “Gone Viral,” a virtual art display.

“What began as an in-person collaboration designed for a campus gallery about a timely topic shifted, as students moved from bystanders to active participants in this global crisis,” university curator Lisa Cooperman wrote in an introduction to Gone Viral. “The focus of the show evolved to reflect their experiences, fears, stress, coping mechanisms and hope for the future.”

View the Gone Viral virtual exhibit.