The Museum of Pandemic Culture is a collaborative online gallery of artwork, research, and writing, originally conceived by Professor Tasha Walston as a response from Cascadia College Humanities students to the pandemic, but broadened over the last two years to include other issues–politics, economics, mental health, globalism, climate change, racial justice–that are also touching students’ lives. ‘MoPan’, as it is fondly known on campus, lives on in 2022, with new student work appearing every quarter from many disciplines in Cascadia’s Humanities division. At the end of Fall 2021, the three presenters hosted the first in-person manifestation of MoPan, an event that combined a gallery show of student artwork with a screening of student-made videos on the theme of their “Pandemic Playlist”. Our session will introduce MoPan with presentations from three perspectives:
- Professor Tasha Walston will explain MoPan, the motivation for starting it, and its curatorial categories; she will also show images from our recent in-person event.
- Professor Chris Gildow will discuss and show examples of an assignment he uses to help students reflect on and generate artwork about the challenges of our pandemic times.
- Professor Kathy Brown will discuss and show examples of MoPan artworks from her classes which reflect the times and circumstances in which students created them.
Tasha Walston is a translator, activist, and tenured member of the English and Humanities Faculty at Cascadia College, where she also serves as Faculty Assembly/Faculty Council Facilitator.
Chris Gildow is an artist and tenured member of the Fine Arts Faculty at Cascadia College, where he also serves as director of Mobius Gallery.
Kathleen Brown is a painter and public artist, and a tenured member of the Fine Arts Faculty at Cascadia College.