Underneath Karen Sommer’s contact info and credentials as operations and program manager for UConn’s William Benton Museum of Art is a quote from 17-year-old Nobel Peace Laureate Malala Yousafzai — “If you want to end the war then instead of sending guns, send books. Instead of sending tanks, send pens. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers.”

Sommer and her colleagues are using their teaching skills in the war against Covid-19 and, in particular, its attendant isolation by bringing virtual arts to students. “We know they’re on campus by themselves without family,” she says. From roundtable art critiques, sculpture scavenger hunts, drawing workshops, even pumpkin carving, the programs and workshops are a point of connection — and fun.