Slow Art Day 2024 is coming soon and will be happening all over the world and in every kind of setting – including but not limited to museums, galleries, sculpture parks, colleges and universities, street art, and a small but growing number of churches.

Further, more cities are hosting citywide Slow Art Days – from Bloomington, Illinois to Philadelphia, PA, to Antwerp, Belgium, and for the first time, Rome (more on Rome next week).

Antwerp has a total of 8 museums and churches participating this year.

In fact, the churches participating in Antwerp represent the beginnings of the church wing of the Slow Art Day movement – for which we must give credit to Armand Storck, scriptor for Sint-Pauluskerk (St. Paul’s) in Antwerp, Belgium.

Storck has hosted *six* previous Slow Art Day events and passionately believes that churches are a natural home for Slow Art Day. “Not only are many churches brimming with works of art, but the locations themselves naturally invite reflection. The slow, sensory perception is a way to arrive at the (religious) meaning of a work of art. Time runs almost noticeably slower in our churches than in the world outside,” said Storck.

We at Slow Art Day HQ couldn’t agree more.

And we are happy to report that as a result of Storck’s efforts to evangelize Slow Art Day to other churches, this year there are *four* churches in Antwerp participating, each of which have gone through preparation and training coordinated by an organization called the Tourism Pastoral and Monumental Churches Antwerp.

Storck wisely decided to expand to more churches in Antwerp first and then find ways to bring more churches around the world into the Slow Art Day fold in future years.

Below is Storck’s description of what each of the four Antwerp churches are doing for Slow Art Day.

Slow Art Day in 4 Churches in Antwerp
by Armand Storck

Sint-Andrieskerk (St. Andrew’s) unveils the painting The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew by Otto Van Veen and compares it to his modello. Children go in search of the mother and grandmother of Jesus, at the altar of Saint Anne.  The sessions are free and start at 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

St. Charles Borromeo focuses on the paintings of the St. Francis Xavier altar. Slow Art Day sessions will be held at 2:15 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. This activity is included in the entrance ticket to the church.

Sint-Jacob goes for three works of art: a sculpture, a funerary monument of the Marquis de Velasco (Pieter I Scheemaekers), a painting, triptych The Last Judgement (Jan Sanders van Hemessen) and a stained-glass window, The Last Supper (Draeck – anonymous). The Slow Art sessions are free and start at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4:15 pm. There will also be a unique viewing moment at 4 p.m., when the shutters of the triptych The Last Judgement will be closed for fifteen minutes, making the back exceptionally visible.

In St. Paul’s, the guides will bring visitors to the pulpit of the Antwerp sculptors De Boeck & Van Wint (see photo below). They became famous for their later Stations of the Cross, made the large church furniture in 1874 and decorated it with beautiful Bible scenes. Fascinating for young and old. The church (see second photo below taken during the 2024 Easter services) is open free of charge from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., the guided sessions start every half hour (last at 4:30 p.m.).

We hope you have a wonderful Slow Art Day 2024 wherever you are in the world – and that you take inspiration from Armand Storck and his colleagues in Antwerp who are leading the efforts to expand our movement.

– Phyl

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

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