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Slow Art Day News

• Klimt Color Enigma and AI at Deutsches Museum Bonn in GermanySeptember 22, 2026

  On Slow Art Day 2026, the Deutsches Museum Bonn in Bonn, Germany, welcomed visitors for their second annual Slow Art Day event. Curator Tanja Löschner, alongside hosts Luise Gottfriedsen and Maxim Frick, invited participants to explore “The Klimt Color Enigma,” an experience focused on Gustav Klimt’s Faculty Paintings. The event encouraged guests to view the black and white versions of these destroyed works before experiencing their recolored interpretations (love that!).

  The event began in the AI Cabinet of the Deutsches Museum Bonn, where attendees gathered to look at three of Gustav Klimt’s Faculty Paintings. The originals were destroyed when retreating Nazi SS troops deliberately set fire to Immendorf Castle in Austria on May 8, 1945, an act of needless destruction on the very day the war in Europe ended and their genocidal regime fell.

  Participants were first invited to examine the black and white photos, taken before the war, allowing their imaginations to consider what colors might have originally adorned the Sphinx or the walls in the Jurisprudence building. This slow looking process encouraged a deep, personal connection with the art, prompting reflection on the lost vibrancy of the paintings.

  Following this exercise, the hosts revealed the recolored versions of the paintings, brought to life through artificial intelligence, a computer scientist, and an art historian.

  This allowed visitors to compare their mental images with the AI-generated interpretations. No specific prompts were used, but participants were encouraged to simply look.

  Comfortable seating and yoga mats were provided in the Cabinet, contributing to a slow experience.

  Approximately 30 people attended. We at Slow Art Day HQ are glad to see the smiles and joy this art experience brought modern visitors deprived of looking at the originals.

  

  

  

  We at Slow Art Day HQ are grateful to Tanja Löschner, Luise Gottfriedsen, Maxim Frick, and the Deutsches Museum Bonn for their continued dedication to fostering slow art experiences. And, in this case, we are deeply appreciative of their efforts to bring these important works, destroyed decades ago, back to life for people today.

  We look forward to seeing what wonderful design they come up with for Slow Art Day 2027.

  — Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

  P.S.:

  Learn more about Deutsches Museum Bonn on their website and Instagram.

• Sixth Slow Art Day at Glen Foerd in PennsylvaniaSeptember 20, 2026

  Glen Foerd, a historic estate and public park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, hosted its sixth annual Slow Art Day on April 11, 2026. Executive Director Ross Mitchell guided participants through a facilitated discussion focused on close observation of art.

  The event began with participants welcomed to the second-floor art gallery, where they sat before three historic paintings displayed on easels. Ross Mitchell introduced the Barnes Method, priming the audience to observe art through specific lenses such as color, light, line, and space. He encouraged attendees to approach art with the painstaking appreciation a surgeon might have for anatomy, considering each interlocking part of a living structure. Following this introduction, he invited the group to spend several silent minutes with the first painting before guiding a discussion. This process was repeated for each artwork, with audience members sharing their findings and connections. This exercise prepared the group to apply the same level of analysis to a contemporary multimedia installation located in a separate part of the mansion. Prompts included vocabulary like “creative distortion,” “local & nonlocal color,” and discussions of illustrative, decorative, and expressive aspects, all designed to deepen appreciation for the artists’ strategies.

  Featured Works:

  • “Threadbare and Tarnished: Tales from a Gilded Age,” 2017, Mixed Media by Talia Eve Greene
  • “Village and Calvary,” c. mid-1930s, Oil on canvas by Luigi Setanni
  • “Head of a Young woman in a Black Feathered Hat,” 1862, Oil on Panel by Thomas Sully
  • “The Madonna Lily,” c. 1925, Oil on canvas by Edith Emerson

  These pieces were chosen for their wide breadth of creative devices and subjects, which allowed for more creative and dynamic comparison during the facilitated discussions. Participants reflected on the peaceful feeling of paying slow, close attention to art, finding it an unintentional respite from screens and the many demands of modern life. One regular volunteer and visitor shared that she gained a new appreciation for paintings she had seen many times before (we hear that a lot from docents, curators, and educators).

  

  

  

  

  

  We at Slow Art Day HQ are grateful to Ross Mitchell and the team at Glen Foerd for their continued dedication to the principles of our movement. Their thoughtful approach provides a unique and enriching experience for participants. We look forward to seeing what they design for Slow Art Day 2027.

  — Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

  P.S. Learn more about Glen Foerd on their website and Instagram.

• The Tragedy of War and the Power of Art at the National Museum of Decorative Arts of UkraineMay 26, 2026

  On April 11, 2026, the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, hosted their second Slow Art Day.

  While many of us can enjoy art without the threat of bombs, missiles or drones, that is not true in Ukraine.

  Official casualty figures for the Russian invasion are closely guarded and difficult to verify, but independent analysts and intelligence agencies estimate that combined military and civilian casualties on both sides of the war have surpassed 1.5 to 2 million people.

  That is terrible.

  Along with this unbelievable loss of life, there has also been the loss of culture, infrastructure, buildings, art, and many, many homes.

  With that in mind, the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Ukraine in Kyiv chose to focus on an artist, Kateryna Hryshko, whose work is dedicated to two important Ukrainian folk artists, Maria Prymachenko and Polina Rayko.

  Olha Frasyniuk led this year’s event, along with museum specialist Olena Shevchuk. Together, they encouraged participants to look slowly at Hryshko’s panel, “Wings”, which was dedicated to these two artists whose works were either damaged or destroyed.

  The composition features iconographic images of the Virgin Mary in the center. On the left, Maria Prymachenko is depicted against a night sky with lightning directed towards a house with a stork, symbolizing the Ivankiv Museum destroyed in February 2022. On the right, Polina Rayko’s figure has feet submerged in water with a drowning bird and cat nearby, a symbolic reminder of the Kakhovka tragedy in June 2023, which flooded the artist’s house-museum. At the bottom, a cross “In Memory of the Fallen Heroes” and a line from Lina Kostenko’s poem “Wings” are included. The painting’s field is adorned with recognizable fragments and images characteristic of both artists’ works, framed by a lush carved wooden frame with three cherubs. Kateryna Hryshko donated this deeply meaningful work to the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Ukraine in 2024.

  

  Gryshko honored these two Ukrainian folks artists in her panel “Wings” because of what happened to their art.

  When a Russian shell struck the museum that housed Maria Prymachenko’s art, the museum’s guard, who lived next door, ran into the burning building and managed to rescue some of the Prymachenko works it housed. Many pieces in the collection were lost.

  In a separate attack, the museum-house of Polina Rayko was destroyed forever by the torrential flooding that followed when the Russians blew up the Kakhovka dam in June 2023. And because Rayko’s art was painted directly on the walls, it is gone forever.

  One of the most powerful aspects of any Slow Art Day happens after the slow looking, when the participants get a chance to talk, share and see through each other’s eyes.

  In this event, participants listened with interest to the stories shared by Olha Frasyniuk and Olena Shevchuk about the destruction of the museum-house of Polina Rayko and of the rescue of paintings from the museum that housed Maria Prymachenko’s paintings.

  And then because everyone in the Ukraine has been affected by this war. They then shared their own experiences of loss and destruction including when their homes or offices were bombed and how they too have lost and/or rescued important personal items.

  There’s a real beauty to this Ukrainian Slow Art Day that deserves celebration by all of us around the world.

  

  

  We at Slow Art Day HQ are grateful to the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Ukraine for their thoughtful and poignant Slow Art Day event and for reminding us to hold dear the people and art around us.

  We look forward to seeing what they design for Slow Art Day 2027, and, more importantly, we look forward to the end of this terrible war.

  — Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

  P.S. View them on Instagram, Facebook, and their website.

• Guided Slow Looking and Drawing at the National Gallery of CanadaMay 21, 2026

  The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, hosted its fourth annual Slow Art Day on April 11, 2026. Andrea Gumpert, Educator of Wellbeing Programs, led the efforts for this year’s event, which invited visitors to either participate in a guided onsite experience, watch a guided slow looking video from home, or engage independently with a bilingual handout that encouraged them to “Slow Down. Reflect. Discover. Engage.”

  A mix of English- and French-speaking participants joined Interpreter-Guides Taylor Simard and Eddie Schmidt for an hour-long onsite guided slow looking session. The groups began with a warm-up and introductory conversation about the purpose of slowing down.

  Participants then spent five minutes looking at a chosen artwork, followed by a group discussion. They then moved to a different gallery where they repeated the exercise. Following that, participants were invited to explore the museum and select additional artworks for further slow looking. Some explored Indigenous and Canadian galleries, while others gravitated to the European galleries. They were offered folding stools for comfort, and pencils, paper, and sketch boards, many of which were used for drawing.

  

  During the facilitated sessions, the Interpreter-Guides used open-ended prompt questions to facilitate discussion, including: “What is your first impression? Why did you choose this work?” and “Can you associate a word or an emotion to this artwork?” They also encouraged participants to reflect on what the artwork told them about themselves and to jot down a memory or sketch something simple.

  Guide Eddie Schmidt noted that participants were “chatty and had great observations, discussion,” while Taylor Simard observed that several participants were “locked in” for the full ten minutes of observation. Both said that participants truly enjoyed the experience, and would return for the Gallery’s monthly Guided Slow Looking Sunday program.

  That’s wonderful. Back in 2010, we set a key goal of the Slow Art Day movement: use the annual day to encourage museums to adopt year-round programming and many have like the National Gallery of Canada.

  We think this kind of device-off, intensive, real-space experience with other humans is just what our fractured world needs.

  

  The Gallery also did some great outreach. The Visitor Services team distributed the bilingual Slow Looking handout to 59 groups. The Marketing team created a one-minute guided slow looking video, as noted earlier, that was published on Facebook and Instagram, and was later uploaded to the Gallery’s Guided Slow Looking Sunday page.

  We at Slow Art Day HQ are grateful to Andrea Gumpert, Taylor Simard, Eddie Schmidt, and the entire team at the National Gallery of Canada for their continued dedication to our movement and we look forward to seeing what they design for Slow Art Day 2027.

  — Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

  P.S. View them on their website.