The annual event celebrating art.
Slow Art Day is Saturday, April 5, 2025 Join Us!
Photo by Greg Neville
New Bedford Whaling Museum Hosts First Slow Art Day
November 3rd, 2024For their first Slow Art Day, the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachussetts, invited visitors to look slowly at their collection “Framing the Domestic Sea: Photographs by Jeffery C. Becton.” Becton’s layered visual images feature the maritime world, and highlight contemporary environmental concerns.
The museum took a simple self-guided approach to their Slow Art Day, which is a great way for any museum or gallery to participate.
They designed a simple and attractive flyer with slow looking prompts (featured below – feel free to copy) and also set up a QR code that took visitors to a discussion about the exhibit by the artist and his wife.
We are glad to welcome the New Bedford Whaling Museum to the Slow Art Day movement and look forward to what they come up with for 2025.
-Johanna, Ashley, JJ, and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with events at the New Bedford Whaling Museum via their Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok page.
Slow Yoga and Photography at MOMus Thessaloniki
October 27th, 2024For their sixth consecutive Slow Art Day, MOMus-Museum of Photography in Thessaloniki, Greece, hosted yoga and slow looking with a focus on the photography of the Greek photographer Elli Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari (1899 – 1998), also known as “Nelly,” or by her studio stamp name “Nelly’s.”
Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari is best known for her photos of Greece between the First and Second World Wars, which shaped the Western imagination of that country. After the outbreak of World War II, she lived in the US where she continued her photography before eventually returning to Greece.
© Benaki Museum Photographic Archives
© Benaki Museum / Photographic Archives
For the Slow Art Day event, photographer and certified yoga teacher, Ioanna Fotiadou, first led participants in a short yoga practice aimed at all levels of experience. She guided them to move slowly and remain in the yoga positions while focusing on the present moment.
This was followed by a slow viewing of selected works from the exhibition, which participants observed for 10 minutes each. At the end of the session, they discussed their experience with the museum curators while drinking coffee and enjoying views of the sea.
At Slow Art Day HQ, we love that yoga, mediation, and mindfulness continue to be a part of our movement – such as the one held at the Swedish National Museum in 2023 or in Ireland in 2024 at West Cork Arts Center.
We also love the passionate participation of MOMus Thessaloniki in Slow Art Day and look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.
-Johanna, Ashley, Phyl, Jessica Jane
P.S. Stay up to day with events at MOMus Thessaloniki via Facebook and Instagram.
Cline House Gallery Hosts First Slow Art Day
October 24th, 2024For their first Slow Art Day, Cline House Gallery in Cornwall, (Ontario) Canada, invited the public to look slowly at art by Giuseppe Di Leo, who was in attendance at the event.
On arrival, participants were given a handout with slow looking prompts that first instructed them not to read anything about the artworks before looking at them. We at Slow Art Day HQ love this instruction – and have even seen hosts hide all artwork info – because it really encourages the viewer to slow down and build their own personal relationship with the art first.
Participants were instructed to find any work in the Gallery that they felt drawn to and look at it slowly, using the below prompts to guide them through their experience.
After the individual slow looking, gallery educator Sean George and the featured artist, Giuseppe Di Leo, led a discussion with participants about their slow looking experience. At Slow Art Day HQ, we love to see artists participating directly in the slow looking event, and believe it is just as rich of a discovery for them to see how their works are perceived by the viewers as it is for the slow lookers.
Visual Arts Coordinator, Emily MacLeod, reported that the event was a success and the Gallery is already looking forward to hosting their second Slow Art Day in 2025. We are excited to see what they come up with next.
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with events at Cline House Gallery through Instagram.
Cliffe Castle Museum hosts 5th Slow Art Day
October 18th, 2024For their 5th Slow Art Day, Cliffe Castle Museum (part of Bradford Museums and Galleries), in Bradford, England, invited visitors to look slowly at 5 artworks:
- Butterfield family stained glass window
- A painting of Napoleon III
- Evolution tapestry
- Cliffe Castle Ballroom by Marie-Louise Roosevelt Pierrepont (no image was provided, but you can view similar works by the same artist).
- Mistle Thrush by Liza Dracup
Image credit: Bradford Museums and Galleries
Image credit: Bradford Museums and Galleries
Castle curators guided Slow Art Day participants on a tour to see the selected works of art and castle features. Others who wanted to look on their own were provided with a map showcasing the location of each of the selected objects, as well as a list of prompts (see the map and prompts below). Lowri Jones, Curator of Collections at Bradford Museums, reported that participants left great feedback about the format.
Love this map. How fun to see our turtle spread across the museum.
We also love the inclusion of architecture, which, of course, makes sense with a castle. Having said that, we encourage other institutions to see if there is a way to incorporate parts of their building, architecture or landscape into their Slow Art Day events.
We look forward to whatever Cliffe Castle Museum and Bradford Museums and Galleries come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with events at Bradford Museums and Galleries via their Facebook, Instagram and X profiles.