The annual event celebrating art.
Slow Art Day is Saturday, April 5, 2025 Join Us!
Photo by Greg Neville
Meditation and Frozen Paint in Gothenburg
February 16th, 2025For their 5th Slow Art Day, the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Gothenburg, Sweden, hosted two events:
- A guided meditation with artist and yoga instructor Pernilla Ljungqvist in front of the artwork “Höstafton, Nordingrå” by Helmer Osslund (1866 – 1938) – adults and teens were invited to join this one.
- Slow looking and drawing workshop consisting of two parts: one in the Museum collection where they practiced slow looking exercises, and another in the Museum studio where they created their own artwork – this was a children’s workshop.
For the first activity, Pernilla, the meditation instructor, invited participants to look slowly at the artwork “Höstafton, Nordingrå.” Next, they relaxed into a comfortable position on a mat in front of the work as Pernilla guided them through simple motions and exercises while looking slowly at the painting.
During the children’s workshop, the kids looked at three artworks using different slow looking techniques focused on noticing new details in each. During the second half of the session, they were invited to paint with frozen colors on watercolor paper (again, this was done in the museum studio). The goal was to use a tactile material, which could activate several senses and emotions *and* in which the concept of time was present in the material itself. Frozen paint to illustrate time and slowness – how cool!
At Slow Art Day HQ we love the idea of using frozen paint in a workshop studio for kids (and hey – us adults would enjoy that too) while running a guided meditation for adults.
For readers not familiar with Gothenburg, it is the second largest city in Sweden situated on the west coast near the Kattegat. The city was built on marshy land and the layout of the city was inspired by Dutch cities like Amsterdam.
The Gothenburg Museum itself is the third largest in Sweden and hosts a collection of 19th century Nordic art as well as a range of modern, contemporary, and older works.
We appreciate the museum’s decision both to offer different events for kids and adults and the way they designed each of those sessions. We eagerly look forward to whatever they come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with events at Gothenburg Museum of Art via their Facebook or Instagram.
Slow Art Day 2025 coming April 5!
February 11th, 2025Slow Art Day 2025 is just around the corner.
For museums, galleries, churches, hospitals, sculpture parks and others participating this year, please register your event with us here:
In the meantime, we are finalizing the 2024 Annual Report and expect to publish that within the month (that report provides details from many of the 2024 events and is a great source of inspiration for the design of your 2025 Slow Art Day).
You can also review earlier Annual Reports here:
Thank you!
Ashley, Jessica Jane, Johanna, Maggie, and Phyl
“Empty Space” Slow Looking at PKULTRA in Seattle
February 9th, 2025For their third Slow Art Day, the art gallery PKULTRA, in Seattle, WA, invited visitors to experience an installation by gallery owner, Paul Kuniholm, titled “Project Urban Penthouse.”
The installation was an empty space above an exhibition venue for the specific purpose of, in Paul Kuniholm’s words, “void intervention: an encapsulation of nothingness for nothingness’ sake.” Said another way, it’s an intentional use of space for nothing.
Kuniholm is a fourth-generation Seattle-based public artist of Swedish descent who works in sculpture, video, mural art, time-based work, as well as digital and binary art (which was the focus of PKULTRA’s Slow Art Day event last year).
Visitors to the gallery were invited to look slowly at Project Urban Penthouse.
To look at “nothing”, in a fast-paced, tech-based, and materialistic culture, is an interesting provocation to the idea that everything must have a purpose.
At its radical core, slow looking, like art in general, is also purposeless in the sense that it’s best when it’s not a transaction, but rather seen as something valuable in and of itself, without recourse to justification.
Thus, we at Slow Art Day HQ like Kuniholm’s provocation and look forward to what interesting exhibit he creates for Slow Art Day 2025.
– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. for other installation artworks by Kuniholm, you can view his installation artwork exhibition with Julian Weber Architects. You can also check out the Instagram accounts for artist Paul Kuniholm as well as Art Gallery PKULTRA.
Seventh Slow Art Day in Belmont, NC
February 4th, 2025While Slow Art Day is often held in large or regional museums, we also love to celebrate when smaller towns and studios join together to host slow looking.
As such, we’re happy to report that Belmont, NC, a small city of about 10,000 people, held their 7th Slow Art Day in April 2024.
To make it happen The Downtown Belmont Development Association in Belmont, NC, partnered with longtime host and local art center, Art by J Studios, which designed an event to focus on four local artists:
- Kathi Graves
- Bae Hart
- Carol Stowe
- James Norman
Below is their innovative and fun flyer (feel free to copy).
Both the morning and afternoon sessions were held at Art by J, a children’s art school, which is housed in an old mill down the hall from renowned artist Juan Logan.
On Slow Art Day, guests were greeted by Jeaniene Dibble, the owner of Art by J, who gave them a Slow Art Day pin (we don’t have a photo of the pin – though we are sure we’d want it!) to wear that she had designed, and handed them a clipboard with paper and a pencil. Normally a chaotic environment with students and classes running, on Slow Art Day the school was serene and contemplative.
Guests looked slowly at each artwork for 10 minutes and used their clipboards to write down inspirations and answers to prompts that they were given. Next, they engaged in a discussion with three of the artists, Kathi Graves, Carol Stowe, and James Norman, who answered questions and discussed the participants’ thoughts and impressions. Pastries, donuts, and water were also provided.
Amy Bossard, the Design Committee Chair at the Downtown Belmont Development Association, reported that guests and artists were so engaged with each other they could have gone on talking all day long (we hear this all the time and witness it ourselves when we run slow looking events).
Both sessions were very well received, and the Downtown Belmont Development Association and Art by J already look forward to Slow Art Day 2025.
– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl