The annual event celebrating art.
Slow Art Day is Saturday, April 11, 2026 Join Us!
Photo by Greg Neville
National Gallery of Canada: Deepening Reflection Through Guided Looking
November 25th, 2025For their third Slow Art Day, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa invited participants to join their event onsite or from home through a guided slow-looking video.
Educator Andrea Gumpert reported that in-person participants were led in both English and French through 2 hour-long sessions by Interpreter-Guides Morel McMaster and Juliana Abramo. Each session began with a brief warm-up and an introduction to the purpose of slowing down with art. Participants then spent five minutes seated with an artwork of their choosing, followed by a group discussion. They repeated the exercise with a different artwork in another gallery, this time extending the observation period.
One of the core philosophies of Slow Art Day is that if you spend a few minutes with a piece of art, then even if you “don’t like it”, you still build a relationship with it and that often means you go deeper than “like or don’t like.”
This experience is repeated thousands of times around the world and was certainly present in Ottawa for Slow Art Day.
In fact, during the first exercise, one participant shared with Juliana that they “didn’t like the painting they chose at first but ended up really appreciating it towards the end,” highlighting how slow looking can shift perception.
Practically speaking, all visitors received a bilingual handout encouraging them to “Slow Down. Reflect. Discover. Engage.”
Below is the video that viewers participating at home could experience:
The National Gallery also did a good job attracting media attention for their Slow Art Day.
CBC Radio’s All in a Day with Alan Neal aired a segment “Take your time with the slooooooow art tour”. CBC Television likewise featured the event in a piece titled The National Gallery wants you to slow down and appreciate art, in which reporter Sandra Abma experienced a slow art tour with educator Andrea Gumpert.
Based on positive visitor feedback from last year’s Slow Art Day, the Gallery has also introduced monthly Guided Slow Looking Sundays, held on the last Sunday of each month. This warms out heart given that one of our core objectives is to inspire year-round programming.
We extend our appreciation to Andrea Gumpert, Morel McMaster, Juliana Abramo, and the entire National Gallery team for their ongoing commitment to slow-looking experiences. We look forward to their continued participation next year.
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Explore the National Gallery of Canada’s programs on Facebook and Instagram.
Slow Looking Art Swap at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT
September 30th, 2025For their first Slow Art Day, the Creative Arts Workshop, a community art school in New Haven, Connecticut, hosted a slow-looking art swap – where the artists were the participants – facilitated by Dymin Ellis, poet, digital artist, musician, and community organizer. Artists ranging from youth to adults participated in the event, each contributing multiple original pieces including photography, altered books, digital art, and embossed prints.
Dymin Ellis led the group through a series of three exercises designed to deepen their engagement with one another’s artworks, and started by asking participants to share their names, artistic disciplines, and the titles of the works they brought. They were then asked to exchange their art work but keep them face down until the exercises began.
- First, each artist was asked to share their piece for 10-seconds only.
- Each participant was then asked to share a single word inspired by what they saw.
- They repeated the 10-second viewing a second time engaging all 5 senses, and were then asked: “What do you see? smell? feel? hear? taste?”
- Next, participants were asked to look at the same work for 1 minute. They were then asked if they had an emotional reaction to the art.
- Finally, Ellis facilitated a ten-minute slow-looking session, introducing the following prompts every two minutes. Participants were asked to write their responses and share in a group discussion afterwards.
- What if this artwork were a portal to a dream—whose dreamworld would it lead to, and what would greet you on the other side?
- Who do you imagine this artwork remembers? Whose hands, eyes, or stories does it carry forward?
- Put yourself in the place of the canvas and imagine what it must have endured to become what it is now.
- Imagine the canvas is living flesh—warm, breathing, wounded, or healed. What kind of creature wears this? Is the artwork a tattoo, a scar, a birthmark, or a disguise?
- Let your senses cross wires. What color does this artwork smell like? What texture does it sing in? What temperature does it speak with?
The session concluded with a collective reflection on the experience, where participants shared what stood out most and how they might apply slow-looking practices in the future.
Dymin reported that the discussion was “intimate, reflective, and at times, magical,” and highlighted how the art-swap format created deep reciprocal learning and such a collaborative spirit that some attendees chose to gift their artwork to others.
At Slow Art Day HQ, we are delighted to hear of the unique art-swap format that the Creative Arts Workshop introduced for their Slow Art Day event, and love hearing how it has helped build slow looking into the local artist community. We look forward to seeing how the Creative Arts Workshop continues to innovate for Slow Art Day 2026.
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay connected with Creative Arts Workshop on Facebook and Instagram.
Inclusive Slow Sculpture and Drawing Experience at Kasteel van Gaasbeek in Belgium
September 26th, 2025For their first Slow Art Day, Kasteel van Gaasbeek (Gasbeek Castle) in Belgium held two activities that combined inclusive slow looking, touching and drawing.
The first activity was a slow-looking and slow-touching session with the “The Peasant Wedding,” a gilded bronze sculpture referencing Bruegel’s paintings that is located in a quiet and intimate corner of the castle. Visitors were invited to slowly experience the sculpture on their own terms. And to make the experience more inclusive, they could choose to also experience it blindfolded or by touch, which also ensured accessibility for people with visual impairments. A guide was also there to ask questions and encourage dialogue about their impressions.
The second activity took place outside the castle, where a guide-lecturer hosted a small slow drawing workshop. Passers-by were invited to pause, sit, and sketch the castle, focusing on its details and slowing down to notice the intricacies of its architecture. This exercise provided participants with an opportunity to not only look carefully but also to translate their observations into creative expression.
We at Slow Art Day HQ love how Kasteel van Gaasbeek’s first Slow Art Day demonstrated how accessible, inclusive, and participatory approaches can enrich the slow looking experience. We look forward to seeing what they do for Slow Art Day 2026!
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay connected with Kasteel van Gaasbeek on Facebook and Instagram.
“What to think about when looking at art” – Slow Art Day at Glen Foerd in PA
September 23rd, 2025For its fifth year celebrating Slow Art Day, Glen Foerd in Philadelphia, PA selected four works from the museum’s permanent collection:
- “Flowers in a Gold Vase” by Mary Elizabeth Price (1987-1960)
- “Lady Trimelston” by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)
- “Manifestation with Wings” by Benton Murdoch Spruance (1904-1967)
- “An Archive of Desire” (2020) by Jennifer Johnson
Visitors were encouraged to spend 10 minutes with each piece before joining a group discussion. The museum provided a set of prompts (see the p.s.).
Executive Director Ross Mitchell started the group discussion with an anecdote about his son, who, while visiting a museum, asked his father a simple yet profound question: “What are you supposed to think about when you’re looking at art?”
Visitors were invited to share their experiences. The group discussed the three paintings, displayed side by side in the Glen Foerd mansion’s art gallery. Initial impressions gave way to deeper appreciation of technique, composition, color, and space. After nearly an hour of dialogue, the group had come up with their own answers to the question Mitchell’s son had posed.
The momentum of the morning continued to the final piece, a sculptural installation display by Jennifer Johnson titled “An Archive of Desire”. Visitors were again asked to share their impressions and observations of the work, taking note of the ways that paintings and sculpture are experienced differently.
The morning ended with final remarks and an invitation to return for next year’s event, which we at Slow Art Day HQ look forward to seeing. We thank Ross Mitchell and the Glen Foerd team for continuing to cultivate a community of slow looking in Philadelphia.
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay connected with Glen Foerd on Facebook and Instagram.
P.P.S. Here were the prompts used:
- Look not only at what is pictured, but how it is pictured.
- What kind of colors has the artist used? Are they bright, muted, or somewhere in between?
- Can you see how the color has been applied or is the color smooth and blended?
- Is there a sense of deep, moderate, shallow, or indeterminate space? Is that space consistent throughout the picture?
- Is space clear and well defined or atmospheric? What about how the picture was painted gives it that quality?
- Is there the suggestion of a directional light source, of light coming from one side or the other?
- Can you see lines anywhere, whether painted lines or strong edges created by color-to-color areas? Where are lines used and how?
- What other observations can you make?
- How is the installation piece different from the paintings?
- What is the unifying theme of the installation?