For their third Slow Art Day, the Missoula Art Museum (MAM) in Montana organized an in-person event encouraging participants to focus on Nancy Erickson’s (1935-2022) Hall of Memory #10: Guard Bear.
Nancy Erickson. 1999. Hall of Memory #10: Guard Bear.
Interestingly, to help guests slowly engage with this one work of art, they set up a small “maker station” in the gallery space with a 5-minute timer, worksheet, prompts, and materials for guests to create their own artworks.
Below is an explanatory video they put together for guests.
We recommend that educators and curators throughout the slow looking movement take a look at this video and think about how to integrate art making into their 2023 Slow Art Day.
MAM Slow Art Day 2022 explanatory video
We at Slow Art Day HQ, are excited to see art making brought into slow looking and would like to thank Educator & Outreach Specialist Cameron Decker and his team for organizing this event.
We look forward to what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2023.
For their second Slow Art Day, the Museum der Stille, in Berlin, Germany, organized an in-person event where participants were invited to look slowly in silence and peace.
The Museum der Stille, literally the “museum of stillness”, is a quiet and safe space in the heart of Berlin where visitors can find a moment for contemplation and deep spiritual connection. It is literally a slow – and slow – art museum.
Visitors engaging with a work of art by Nikolai Marakov. Photo credit: Steve Nietz.
For Slow Art Day, the organizers, Steve Nietz, Alexander Aleksander, asked participants to look silently at two works (one in each room) by fellow organizer and artist Nikolai Marakov (see photo above).
While they did not answer questions in the galleries, the organizers did make themselves available in the lobby in case participants had questions or comments.
Perhaps, due to the lingering effects of looking slowly in noiseless rooms with dimmed lighting, participants did not ask questions afterwords – but some did leave comments about the power and impact of this experience.
“If I had more time, I would have sat down in the room forever. It was exactly what I needed: silence.”
Slow Art Day participant
“The dense atmosphere, the absence of sound, and the minimal exhibition has put me in a state of calm.”
Slow Art Day participant
“The room of silence left me speechless.”
Slow Art Day Participant
“Soft tones, forms and figures of every kind, evoking transcendence and the urge to let go. A place of utter calmness in the middle of busy Berlin/Mitte.”
Slow Art Day Participant
The event was a success with 25-30 participants coming to silently look at the art slowly.
At Slow Art Day HQ, we are impressed with the merging of silence and slow that the team at Museum Der Stille created – especially given how afraid many are of silence (think about how many of us walk around with headphones, or how loud many museums can be).
But silence, like slow, is powerful and we encourage more museums to consider using silence as a key design element of their future Slow Art Day events.
And we look forward to seeing what this creative museum in Berlin develops for their Slow Art Day 2023.
The first part was called “the moment of contemplation”, where participants were invited to follow three key moments:
Contemplate each work for one minute.
Observe each work for two minutes.
Choose the work they liked the most and look at it for another two minutes.
Below you can see the four engravings that were selected for the event:
George Mead Moore, Blue pelvis, printed on metal
Guillermo Olguín, Motel, lithography
Raúl Herrera, El retorno de los pájaros, lithography.
Ros Santos, Mareños, printed on metal
For the second part of the event, aesthetics and art expert Susanne Brass led an open dialogue among all participants.
Participant engaging with a work of art.
The event was a real success and participants loved focussing on details and discovering new things.
At Slow Art Day HQ we are happy to welcome Anfibia Gráfica to our movement, and very much look forward to seeing what they come up with for their second Slow Art Day in 2023
On the 2nd of April, the Nashville Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee, celebrated their first Slow Art Day with a variety of in-person activities.
For the event, they organized four art talks with Acting Curator Jennifer Richardson who helped participants look slowly and explore paintings while also facilitating discussions using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS).
Acting Curator Jennifer Richardson in the Cowan Gallery – Picture taken from website
Richardson alternated talks/slow looking with other activities.
For example, docents encouraged participants to take part in their Cowan Challenge: a slow looking, detail-finding game with paintings from their Cowan Collection, which includes art works that range from the 18th-20th centuries, to contemporary pieces from their Red Arrow – Show Up! past exhibition.
They also held an Achitecture Tour to look slowly at the building and, separately, organized a Kidsville event, where children, families, and adults could read a book with Imagination Library and create art inspired by it. To make everything even more inclusive, they also set up a Quiet Area for participants to enjoy art books in their specific designated area.
The event was a success, with 1,867 visitors and 242 recorded contacts many of whom admitted to being surprised by discovering how much they could really see thanks to the art of slowing down.
At Slow Art Day HQ we are glad to welcome Nashville Parthenon to our movement and look forward to what they come up with in April 2023!
For the online session, which took place on April 1, the eight participants received three artworks by email the day before of the event so that they could look slowly on their own and then come and present their thoughts during the session.
For the in-person event, organizers presented the three artworks at the beginning of the session, then they left the 20 participants to look slowly for 45 minutes.
Participants were given some prompts to think about while looking:
Which elements strike you the most?
Which positive or/and negative emotions do you feel looking at this artwork?
Do you like this artwork asethetically?
Does it evoke you memories? If so, which ones?
They also asked participants to do the following:
Rate their emotional and aesthetic responses with a scale of of 0 to 5 points.
Assign a title for each work of art (we recommend other educators consider adding this fun element).
Think of a common thread connecting the three artworks.
Once their slow looking was done, the museum then divided the participants into small discussion groups of four people each.
Photos from the in-person session can be viewed below.
Gino Severini, Cannoni in azione, 1915 oil on canvas, 50 x 61,5 cm, Mart, Collezione VAF-Stiftung
On the left: Participants engaging with a piece of art. In the middle and on the right: participants working in groups.
Organizers collected the participants feedback and shared with us a few snippets (translated from Italian).
Admiring, observing and talking in a group about the individual and personal sensations that the works made on us was very beautiful, instructive and formative. Feeling how each participant had his own point of view and his impression and how the various impressions intertwined with each other was very welcome and was appreciated by all.
Renzo – Slow Art Day participant
I think we all had a great desire to live this moment, in which physical closeness, looks, voice, were finally used as “normal” means of communication and expression simply belonging to our human race. After these two years of restrictions [for Covid] I think we all felt happy to get to know and re-know each other in a close way and to make a group. Looking together, exchanging opinions and impressions, sharing the different possibilities of reading and interpreting the works was an enriching experience and, let me say, at least for me, even moving.”
Maddalena – Slow Art Day participant
We’d like to add that Denise Bernabè, Membership Coordinator at MART, and Piero Consolati, MART member for several years, have been organizing Slow Art monthly meetings in addition to the annual events. And, due to the pandemic, April 2 was the first time they ran an in-person slow looking session – and they did great!
We very much look forward to what they come up with for 2023.
For their first Slow Art Day, the Holland Museum in Holland, Michigan, organized an in-person event inviting participants to engage with their Dutch art collection.
Beach Scene with Men on Horseback, n.d., Johannes Koekkoek (1840-1912), oil on canvas
Participants were divided in four small groups and were encouraged to look at the selected paintings for five minutes each, then to share their thoughts with a friend or another participant from the event. Education & Community Programs Manager Michelle Stempien provided them with a short brochure with images from the Dutch art collection.
Holland Museum’s Slow Art Day brochure.
The brochure contained different open-ended questions and prompts for each painting, to encourage more in-depth looking:
Elegant Company Making Music, 1660, Jacob Duck (1600-1667), oil on panel
Prompts for “Elegant Company Making Music” by Jacob Duck :
What do you think the woman on the left is thinking about?
Why is she looking at us?
How does the artist show us her importance?
What seems unusual about this scene?
Other prompts included the comparison between these two paintings:
Portraits of Cornelius Van Beresteyn and Janntje Berckel, 1617, Pieter Jacobsz (1608-1677), oil on panel
A docent was also available to discuss the paintings. Participants were playfully encouraged to copy some of the poses in paintings, and post photos of their poses to social media.
We encourage educators and curators to consider copying their joyful slow looking design — including their brochure.
And we at Slow Art Day HQ are happy to welcome the Holland Museum to Slow Art Day, and look forward to what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2023.
For their 8th Slow Art Day, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) – one of the largest art museums in North America – organized a virtual event on Zoom.
For the event, Art Educator Lauren Spring, guided participants in a close looking journey through expressionist and spiritual realms from post WWI Germany to Inuvialuit hamlet Tuktuyaaqtuuq in the 1950s.
They were invited to take a deep and slow look at works of art by German artist Käthe Kollwitz, British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor, and Inuit sculptor Bill Nasogaluak, exploring themes of family, interconnectedness, limits, transformation and transcendence, and considering how and why artists aspire to represent the most complex human emotions and experiences.
The Zoom event hosted many live participated as well as generated many likes and reshares across AGO’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.
At Slow Art Day HQ, we would like to thank Lauren Spring and her colleagues Melissa Smith, Natalie Lam, and Lexie Buchanan for organizing such an engaging virtual event. We are grateful for AGO’s long-term commitment to celebrating Slow Art Day, even during hard pandemic times.
We can’t wait to see what they come up with for their 9th Slow Art Day in 2023.
Founding Slow Art Day host (and regular contributor to the Slow Art Day blog), artist Hedy Buzan organized an in-person slow-looking event at the Public Art Walk in Heisler Park Gazebo, Laguna Beach, California.
Below is the flyer that Hedy distributed in the beachside artist community of Laguna Beach.
Slow Art Day flyer
For this event, Hedy chose five public art sculptures at Heisler Park, and asked participants to look at each for five minutes. Below are photos of three of the sculptures.
Semper Momento (Never Forget), 911 Memorial, by Jorg Dubin
Continuous Rotation by Scott and Naomi Schoenherr
Breaching Whale by Jon Seeman
When we launched Slow Art Day in 2010, Hedy and about 30 other artists and volunteers ran ‘guerilla-style’ Slow Art Day events at museums, galleries, and sculpture parks. These were unofficial events because museums were not at first willing to participate. But after several years of running these clandestine slow-looking events, museums and galleries began to adopt Slow Art Day – which has now been officially sponsored by over 2,000 museums and galleries all over the world.
We thank Hedy for being one of the pioneers that made this whole movement possible and can’t wait to see what she comes up with for 2023.
Jessica Jane, Ashley and Phyl
P.S. – If you happen to be in Laguna Beach anytime this summer between June 24 and August 28, then look for Hedy Buzan’s booth at The Sawdust Art Festival and go thank her for helping to launch Slow Art Day.
For their first Slow Art Week, Sharony Green, Associate Professor of History at the University of Alabama, and Brandon Thompson, Director of the UA Gorgas House Museum worked with students and artists to create and display a public art installation that helped history students and the campus as a whole think slowly about slavery and Antebellum America.
Dr. Green (pictured below) and her “Antebellum America” class created a 63-foot burlap with individual pieces that were displayed as a work-in-progress on April 1, eve of Slow Art Day, and then hung from Gorgas House later in the month once finished. Further, Dr. Green invited students from her “America since 1865” class to come and look slowly at the work of their Antebellum-focused student colleagues.
Dr. Sharony Green (left) and her students (right)
In her blog, Dr Green suggested to students, faculty, and staff that they slow down to think about the “enslaved artisans, including women, who… sewed out of necessity and maybe even survival.”
She further explained that tapestry also “offers a chance to ponder what textiles represent in a modernizing country in the years leading to the Civil War and what textiles mean today when we celebrate all things ‘handmade’ and what Koritha Mitchell labels as ‘homemade citizenship.'”
Gorgas House shared a digital interview about the students’ process and Dr. Green also talked about the process in the YouTube video below.
We encourage other professors to take inspiration from Dr. Green and think about how to weave Slow Art Day into their classes and campus museums – including, as Dr. Green has done, with classes outside of the studio art or art history departments.
At Slow Art Day HQ, we certainly look forward to what Dr. Green comes up with in 2023 to teach us how to look and think slowly about American history and its most challenging and troubling aspects.
The Slow Art Day collective delivered the closing keynote last Friday for Tiempo de Arte‘s conference in Spain. Our two European HQ members, Johanna Bokedal (Sweden) and Jessica Jane Nocella (Italy) traveled to Spain while our U.S.-based founder, Phyl Terry, participated via Zoom from New York.
The conference took place in the Centro Botín: an arts centre designed by Pritzker Prize-winner architect Renzo Piano, in collaboration with Luis Vidal and Architects. It is located between the city centre of Santander and the historic Pereda Garden, and the bay.
Centre Botín, Photo Credits: Johanna Bokedal
The conference was opened by the Organizing Committee of Tiempo de Arte, the Director of Centre Botín, the Mayor of Santander, and by the Tourism Director of Cantabria. Then, Writer Carl Honoré gave a talk on “La Revolución Slow: La Magia de la Lentitud” (lit.: the revolution of slow: the magic of slowness). In his engaging speech, Carl stressed the importance of slowing down in a high-speed world. He also talked about the importance of what he calls “the slow paradoxes” – i.e., how sometimes you can slow down to go fast, or how disconnecting from your phone can reconnect you to the world around you.
Carl’s talk was then followed by different interesting roundtables on various topics, which ranged from sustainable collecting to the role of humanism in the digital world.
Carl Honoré, La Revolución Slow: La Magia de la Lentitud”. Photo credits: Johanna Bokedal
On the second day, the conference opened with a dialogue between the award-winning chef Jesús Sánchez, and the sculpor José Luis Vicario. They talked about how encounters and meetings can be an opportunity to slow down and discover the beauty surrounding us. This was then followed by a roundtable on art, beauty and health where experts in psychology, art, and art therapy talked about the benefits of art in different contexts.
Professor, Psychologist, and Writer Alejandra Vallejo-Nágera engaged with the audience in a slow-listening activity. She invited us to close our eyes, listen to two cellos playing, and then to communicate the music through our hands as if we had to express it to someone who was hearing-impaired. One last roundtable on tourism and art was held by the Mayors of Santander, Malaga, and Madrid.
Roundtable on Art, Beauty, and Health. Photo credits: Johanna Bokedal.
The conference closed with our talk Slow Art Day: Design by Letting Go, which we delivered both in-person (Jessica and Johanna) and remotely (Phyl).
We began with a cross-continent slow looking exercise focused on Hans Hoffman’s Fantasia, the piece of art that kicked off the slow art revolution back in 2008.
Phyl Terry engaging the audience in a slow-looking activity
We then showed highlights from the 2,000+ Slow Art Day events that have been held around the world. Finally, we emphasized the radically decentralized nature of Slow Art Day and our mission to create an environment of radical inclusion.
We really enjoyed giving this multi-language (our talk was simultaneously translated into Spanish), multi-continent, multi-media talk. And Johanna and Jessica, who had been working together for years but had never met, loved spending two days together in real life.
Slow Art Day team engaging with the audience.
Slow Art Day HQ would like to thank Merche Zubiaga, Zaida De Las Heras, and Charo Izquierdo for inviting us to speak at their Tiempo de Arte event. We look forward to continuing to work with them to keep building the slow art movement.
