The annual event celebrating art.
Slow Art Day is Saturday, April 11, 2026 Join Us!
Photo by Greg Neville
Klimt, Turtles, AI & Art at Deutsches Museum Bonn
March 11th, 2026On April 5, 2025, the Deutsches Museum Bonn in Bonn, Germany participated in Slow Art Day and focused on the exhibition KI-Update: Deep Dive – Ist das Kunst? (“AI Update: Deep Dive – Is It Art?”).
The exhibition explored artificial intelligence and its growing role in creativity, authorship, and perception.
For Slow Art Day, the museum centered the experience around a set of connected questions: “Can we recognize AI-generated art? And when we look closely at AI-generated content, do we discover the same feelings, surprises, and emotions as we do when we spend a long time looking at human-made art?”
Displayed throughout the gallery were pairs of artworks inviting comparison and contemplation — classical works alongside AI-generated interpretations, including images inspired by Gustav Klimt’s Der Kuss and other well-known masterpieces. Through activating and participatory stations, visitors were encouraged to look carefully, question assumptions, and examine their own emotional responses.
The format followed a simple but powerful structure:
- First, slow down upon entering.
- Second, engage deeply with the works and prompts.
- Finally, reflect on whether the experience of looking at AI-generated imagery felt different from looking at traditionally created art.
One unexpected outcome of the day was the shared feeling of becoming “turtles.” As visitors slowed their pace and extended their viewing time, the metaphor stuck. To celebrate the theme, a volunteer led a hands-on crafting station where participants created multicolored turtles using potato starch material. The playful activity reinforced the central message of the day: slow down, take your time, and carry curiosity with you.
By blending philosophical inquiry, technology, and participatory creativity, Deutsches Museum Bonn created a Slow Art Day that felt both timely and joyful.
Warm thanks to Tanja Löschner and the entire education and engagement team for bringing Slow Art Day into the evolving conversation around AI and art. We look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2026.
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
Contemporary Art at Wardong Gallery
March 10th, 2026On April 5, 2025, Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre (WFAC) in Western Australia held their first Slow Art Day during the Perth Festival exhibition season and focused on four contemporary works presented in the Wardong Gallery.
Photographer: Shannon Lyons
Before the slow looking began, Shannon Lyons, Engagement and Public Programs Coordinator, welcomed participants and acknowledged the Whadjuk people as the traditional custodians of the land.
Shannon outlined a self-directed structure for the morning and invited participants to spend approximately 15 minutes with each of the four mapped artworks, choosing their own order. They were encouraged to unplug, remain quiet, and refrain from reading the gallery texts, focusing instead on what they could see and experience directly. Notepaper, pencils, and clipboards were offered for those who wished to write or draw, and stools were available for seated viewing.
After an hour of slow looking, the group reconvened in the center of the gallery for a relaxed discussion. Conversation prompts invited participants to share one word to describe an artwork, reflect on details noticed, and consider what it felt like to look slowly.
For many attendees, this was a new experience. Most had never spent sustained time with an artwork before. The extended encounter with Mitchell’s video work encouraged careful observation and personal interpretation.
We look forward to seeing what the WFAC comes up with for Slow Art Day 2026.
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
Third Place Making at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art
March 9th, 2026On April 5, 2025, the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas hosted their fifth Slow Art Day with a thoughtful and community-centered program grounded in the theme “Slow Looking as Community Third Place Making.”
Facilitated by Dr. Zida Wang, Manager of Community Engagement and Outreach, the day invited participants to consider how an art museum can function as a “third place” — a welcoming social environment beyond home and work where reflection and connection can unfold naturally. Throughout the day, participants including UNLV students, local artists, and families, moved through the galleries at their own pace.
The featured works for slow looking were paintings by Japanese-American artist Yoko Kondo Konopik:
- Play with Blue and Two Yellow (2004)
- Sunny Beach (2019)
- Las Vegas Lullaby (2021)
These bold, geometric compositions — with their intersecting planes of color, stripes, arcs, and spatial tension — offered rich opportunities for observation and interpretation.
After introducing the selected works, visitors were encouraged to engage in self-guided slow looking supported by printed prompts developed by the museum. These prompts invited participants to reflect not only on what they saw, but also on their own physical presence in the gallery.
They were asked to consider the size and dimensionality of the artwork, notice unexpected details, reflect on how their body was positioned in front of the work, and even become aware of sound and air temperature. Additional prompts invited visitors to find artworks connected to values such as compassion, courage, joy, or personal growth.
Influenced by Third Place Theory, constructivist museum approaches, and other approaches like visual thinking, the program blended independent reflection with facilitated dialogue. Participants journaled quietly, then gathered for informal conversations to share interpretations. The tone was open, exploratory, and welcoming. There was no pressure to “get it right.” Instead, the emphasis was on slowing down and discovering meaning collectively.
We love the flyer they created. As you can see below, it used oversized, rounded outline lettering with playful cutout details and a cool blue palette that gave it a distinctly 1960s modernist poster vibe. The bold typography, clean sans-serif subtext, and simple graphic shapes also created a retro feel that was both groovy *and* approachable.
According to visitors, the Slow Art Day experience made the galleries felt less like formal exhibition spaces and more like living rooms for communal viewing. Some returned to the same painting multiple times. Others compared how their perceptions shifted after hearing a peer’s insight.
By the end of the day, the event affirmed the Barrick Museum’s belief that art museums can serve as inclusive third space for reflection, empathy, and connection. In other words, Slow Art Day did not simply encourage looking; it encouraged belonging.
We are grateful to Dr. Zida Wang and the team at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art and look forward to what they come up with for 2026!
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
BYU Museum of Art: Four Ways to Slow Down in “Crossing the Divide”
March 8th, 2026For their fourth Slow Art Day, the Brigham Young University Museum of Art in Provo, Utah celebrated from Monday, March 31 through Saturday, April 5 and invited visitors to practice slow looking using four different strategies and a small group of works in the Crossing the Divide exhibition on display on the main level of the museum.
Featured works:
- “A Corner Window in a Pawn Shop” by Rose Hartwell (1893)
- “Trifloria” by Jeanne Leighton-Lundberg Clarke (c. 1981)
- “LOVE” by Robert Indiana (1973)
- “View of Monterey Bay” by Raymond Dabb Yelland (1879)
- “Great White Throne” by Phillip Henry Barkdull (1930)
Look Big
Visitors were encouraged to “cast a wide net” and examine every detail in Hartwell’s painting. The prompt challenged them to name ten different items for sale in the shop window — a structured way to slow down and notice complexity.
Narrow Your Focus
Jeanne Leighton-Lundberg Clarke, Trifloria (c. 1981), oil on canvas. Brigham Young University Museum of Art.
Here the instruction was the opposite: limit attention to colors, shapes, and patterns. By narrowing their focus, visitors discovered how repetition, contrast, and structure shape the viewing experience.
Change Your Perspective
Robert Indiana, LOVE (1973), aluminum. Brigham Young University Museum of Art.
Participants were invited to view Indiana’s sculpture from multiple angles, either in person or through online images. Altering physical perspective revealed new alignments of form and shadow.
Compare and Contrast
Phillip Henry Barkdull, Great White Throne (1930), oil on canvas. Brigham Young University Museum of Art.
Visitors were prompted to compare subject, color, line, and composition between the two landscapes. This strategy encouraged noticing similarities and differences in mood, structure, and visual language.
After completing the activity, participants returned to the front desk to receive a small prize. All visitors selected a postcard or sticker featuring one of the works. Children also received a kaleidoscope, and adults chose between a museum pin or sticker.
At Slow Art Day HQ, we love that The BYU Museum of Art asked visitors to look with four different. That’s a great design for a thoughtful Slow Art Day.
We look forward to seeing what the BYU Museum of Art comes up with for Slow Art Day 2026.
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl