Mindfulness at the TarraWarra Museum of Art

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For their 4th Slow Art Day, the TarraWarra Museum of Art in Healesville, Australia, organized an interactive mindful workshop where visitors could enjoy the art of relaxation while observing and appreciating art.

The museum’s Learning & Engagement team guided a small group of participants through a 1.5 hour interactive workshop that was comprised of mindful techniques such as automatic journaling, body awareness, breathing and visualizations. The goal was to deepen their connection with their lived experiences and with their relationship with the art on display.

Participant engaging in slow looking. Image Credits: Tourism Australia.

We are happy to see that mindfulness and meditation continue to be a growing part of the global slow looking toolkit.

And given that we are big fans of TarraWarra here at Slow Art Day HQ, we are eager to see what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.

P.S. Stay up to date with events at TarraWarra Museum through Instagram and Facebook

– Jessica Jane, Johanna, Ashley, and Phyl

Innovating the Patient-Art Experience at St. Vincent’s Hospital

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Art at St Vincent’s – St Vincent’s Hospital, in Melbourne, Australia, is leading the way in coming up with innovative approaches to slow looking in a hospital environment. This year, they designed six “slow art cards” with photos of works from their St Vincent’s Art Collection – and on the back of each card they printed brief instructions guiding participants in looking slowly at the art featured on the front.

What a great way to bring art, and the art of slow looking, into all the corners of a hospital. We hope that many more hospitals around the world copy St. Vincent’s. Too often, the art in a hospital is not accessible to many patients. To that point, St. Vincent’s distributed the cards broadly to both staff and patients in Pain Management, Pastoral Care, Correctional Services and Palliative Care.

Below is the view of the back side of the card with the instructions:

Below are the front sides of the six cards. Note that the event organizers made sure that the art reflected the diversity of St. Vincent’s hospital community, which is why they included artists from a variety of backgrounds.

Rod McNicol, Maryan, 2010, digital print, St Vincent’s Art Collection.
Chris Delamont, Walu-win Girri (Healthy Future), 2020, oil on canvas.
On loan to St Vincent’s Art Collection
Boman Ali Wakilzada, Songs of Wisdom, 2016, oil on canvas,
St Vincent’s Art Collection
Kevin Todd, Tetouan #4, 2019, acrylic on mdf panels,
St Vincent’s Art Collection.
Artist Unknown, Tarantella Dancers, marquetry inlay, St Vincent’s Art Collection.
Conrad Clark, Asylum, 2016, acrylic on canvas, St Vincent’s Art Collection

At Slow Art Day HQ we are really impressed with the creativity of the staff at St. Vincent’s Hospital. This is a great way to enhance the healing environment and support both patients and staff.

We look forward to many more hospitals around the world copying the ingenuity of the team at St. Vincent’s and can’t wait to see what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2025!

– JJ, Johanna, Ashley, and Phyl

Accessible Slow Art Day Hosted by the Art Gallery at Evergreen

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For their third Slow Art Day, the Art Gallery at Evergreen in Coquitlam, Canada, invited visitors to look slowly at two artworks from their touring exhibition “Paths” for 5-10 minutes each:

Both artworks were part of the 2024 Capture Photography Festival Selected Exhibition Program.

Silas Ng, “Music in My Eyes,” 2020, site-specific installation at the Art Gallery at Evergreen, Evergreen Cultural Centre, 2024. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography. @racheltophamphotography
Still from a video featuring an interior pan of Sarah Anne Johnson’s “Woodland” across several window panels at the Lafarge Lake-Douglas SkyTrain Station. Woodland was presented at Evergreen in partnership with TransLink.

On the day, all visitors were invited to look slowly at one or both artworks using the below provided prompts. We encourage museum educators to take a look.

SLOW_ART_DAY_PROMPTSDownload

The activity was self-directed, but after doing individual slow looking, participants could discuss their experience with gallery assistant Kim Grewal, or were encouraged to share their reflections on Instagram. Before leaving, they were also invited to continue the slow looking experience by spending time with some of Evergreen’s public artworks, located only steps away from the gallery.

The exhibition “Paths” featured artwork by twenty-two Canadian artists, two of which were placed in focus for the Slow Art Day event. We’ll note that one of the featured artists, Silas Ng, is deaf, and explores this in his work. In fact, his featured work “Music in My Eyes,” 2020, encourages slow lookers to think creatively as they spend time with the art.

We look forward to seeing what Art Gallery Evergreen comes up with for Slow Art Day 2025.

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with events at Art Gallery Evergreen through their Instagram or Facebook.