Euro Slow Art Day 2024

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Slow Art Day 2024 is tomorrow, Saturday, April 13 and yet again there are an amazing variety of museums, galleries, churches, cities, sculpture parks joining us from around the world (see the full list) – including across Europe.

To name just a few across that continent…

There are three cities hosting citywide Slow Art Days – Antwerp, Belgium (*8* locations), Reims, France (*4* locations), Rome, Italy (*3* museums).

Some countries are hosting multiple sites including Belgium (*11* locations including Antwerp), Sweden (*8* locations), Italy (*7* locations including Rome), England (*6* locations), Germany (*5* locations including 2 in Berlin), Spain (*4* locations), Ireland (*3* locations), Denmark (*2* locations).

Then Ukraine, Slovenia and several other countries have single sites for Slow Art Day 2024.

Here’s details on just two of these locations:

Altes Museum – Berlin

The Altes Museum (English: Old Museum) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was originally built between 1825 and 1830. It’s in the heart of Berlin on the museum island. For their Slow Art Day they are running a workshop in the Greek and Roman galleries.

And I love this – the “prerequisite” for participation in this workshop is “curiosity and goodwill towards yourself.” Lovely. Led by the art therapists Naira Bloss and Ulla Utasch, the workshop includes a short guided relaxation exercise, slow looking at selected ancient art, then followed by an in-depth discussion.

Sweden Nationalmuseum

The Swedish Nationalmuseum is hosting another art chill in their beautiful Sculpture Courtyard. They are providing yoga mats and an optional soundtrack.

These are just a few of the hundreds of places hosting events around the world this year.

And, of course, you can run your own personal Slow Art Day anywhere anytime. 

We hope you have a wonderful Slow Art Day 2024.

– Phyl 

P.S. If you have not yet registered your Slow Art Day with us, then go to this page.

P.P.S. Our 2023 Annual Report is out. Read it and get inspired!

Slow Art Day across the U.S. East Coast

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Slow Art Day 2024 is coming up this Saturday, April 13 and yet again there are an amazing variety of museums, galleries, churches, cities, sculpture parks joining us from around the world (see the full list) – including across the East Coast of the United States.

To name just a few across the East Coast…

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Met Cloisters will be hosting again in New York City.

Mass MoCA will be hosting again in North Adams, MA while the Worcester Art Museum will yet again produce a Slow Art Day in that city. The beautiful and wonderful Athenaeum will be hosting in Boston. Connecticut and New Jersey supports several locations including the Grounds for Sculpture.

Philadelphia has a nascent citywide including The Barnes Foundation, Glenn Foerd, and the Magic Gardens.

In Washington D.C., the National Museum of Women in the Arts is hosting yet again (they are one the founding museums for Slow Art Day). Virginia and North Carolina have multiple locations across those states while Florida hosts *7* different venues including the Frost Art Museum and the Lowe Art Museum both in Miami.

Here are a few locations –

Mass MoCA

This year, Mass MoCA has created two ways to experience Slow Art Day:

  1. Slow Looking Tours
  2. A paired audiowalk they are calling “Where I End & You Begin,” which requires advance reservations.

The museum has had a close relationship with artist James Turrell and with the now-deceased Professor Arden Reed who wrote a terrific book, “Slow Art : The Experience of Looking, Sacred Images to James Turrell”, which talks about Slow Art Day (and for which I gave a blurb on the back cover).

James Turrell, “Once Around, Violet (Shallow Space),” 1971.

Barnes Foundation

The Barnes always produces a thoughtful and interesting Slow Art Day (and we are in conversations with them about a conference – stay tuned for more details).

This year, when participants arrive, they will receive a list of five paintings for self-guided slow looking. They will be encouraged to spend an hour or so looking, and then will be invited to a discussion in the Herbert and Joyce Kean Family Classroom. That discussion will be led by Barnes senior instructor Michael Williamson.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Before the Bath (detail), c. 1875. BF9. Public Domain.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

We love the National Museum of Women in the Arts – they are founders of the Slow Art Day movement and they have led the global re-awakening to the centuries-old role of women artists.

Their event this year is sold out. So, if you live in Washington, DC then plan ahead for their Slow Art Day 2025.

Deborah Butterfield, Big Horn, 2006; Cast bronze, 92 x 114 x 41 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Jacqueline Badger Mars in honor of Wilhelmina Cole Holladay; © Deborah Butterfield; Image courtesy of L.A. Louver

Boston Athenaeum

The Boston Athenaeum, which combines a library, with a museum and cultural center, is hosting Slow Art Day in their landmark building.

They will be focusing on a single painting by Boston artist Allan Rohan Crite.

Worcester Art Museum

Our friends at Juniper Rag are co-sponsoring a Slow Art Day at the Worcester Art Museum. The WAM will be focusing their slow looking event on the new Terrain Exhibition, which features 21st-Century landscape photographers and how these contemporary artists use different photographic processes to explore the idea of landscape.

Frost Art Museum

For their *13th* Slow Art Day (Frost is one of the founding museums of this slow looking movement), Frost will feature performances by Miami-based artists Smita Sen (pictured on the right – below), who explores the relationship between the body and memory through sculpture and technology, and Agua Dulce (left – below), a Miami-based artist who uses organic materials to blur the line between the mystical and mundane.

These are just a few of the hundreds of places hosting events around the world this year.

And, of course, you can run your own personal Slow Art Day anywhere anytime. 

We hope you have a wonderful Slow Art Day 2024.

– Phyl 

P.S. If you have not yet registered your Slow Art Day with us, then go to this page.

P.P.S. Our 2023 Annual Report is out. Read it and get inspired!

From Athens to South Africa to Toronto and Beyond

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Slow Art Day 2024 is coming up this Saturday, April 13 and yet again there are an amazing variety of museums, galleries, churches, cities, sculpture parks are joining us (see the full list) – including places in Athens, South Africa, and Toronto.

Athens

The Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens is premiering the first Slow Art Day in the Greek capital (other Greek cities have hosted – but this year is a first for Athens). The collection features the amazing modern art collected by now-deceased shipowner Basil Goulandris and his wife Elise Karadontis (read this article for more information on their event).

Here’s the simple image they are using to promote their Slow Art Day:

South Africa

The Melon Rouge Gallery in South Africa always produces a great Slow Art Day – and a great poster.

Here’s their 2024 poster:

Toronto – Art Gallery of Ontario

The AGO, one of the largest museums in North America, will be hosting their 9th Slow Art Day and have chosen this terrific image.

These are just a few of the hundreds of places hosting events this year.

And, of course, you can run your own personal Slow Art Day anywhere anytime.

We hope you have a wonderful Slow Art Day 2024.

– Phyl 

P.S. If you have not yet registered your Slow Art Day with us, then go to this page.

P.P.S. Our 2023 Annual Report is out. Read it and get inspired!