For their third Slow Art Day, the Art Gallery of St. Albert, Canada, organized an in-person slow looking event focused on their current exhibitions, which were promoted on their Facebook & Instagram.
St. Albert’s Slow Art Day Flyer
For the event, the museum prepared a slow looking guide with prompts and questions (see below).
We at Slow Art Day HQ like the simplicity and clarity of their guide and recommend that educators and curators around the world take a look at this and consider copying their approach for future slow looking events.
For their fifth Slow Art Day, Wanås Konst, a sculpture park located in southern Sweden, offered a hybrid in-person and online experience focused on artist Katarina Löfström’s outdoor installation Open Source (Cinemaskope).
Katarina Löfström, Open Source (Cinemaskope), 2018/2021, photo courtesy of Erika Alm
Katarina Löfström sees her works as paintings of light and movement. Open Source (Cinemaskope) consists of a screen made from sequins on a tall metal frame. This screen “reflects the surrounding nature and creates a continuous, transforming abstract film”. Read more about Katarina on Wanas Konst’s website.
Over a hundred visitors slowly looked at Löfström’s work, and host Erika Alm shared elements of the exhibit via Instagram, allowing for remote participation.
We at Slow Art Day HQ are really glad to have this museum, whose mission is to produce and communicate art that challenges and changes ways of seeing, involved in our global movement.
We can’t wait to see what they come up with for next year!
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.
For their second Slow Art Day, Northern Lights Gallery, based in Melfort, Canada and hosted by Sandra Dancy, focused on beauty as a temporary escape. Seven artists from Melfort – a city of about 6,000 in central Saskatchewan – offered one piece of their work for slow looking.
Write Down to my Soul, Jen Kjelshus, Mixed media on paper
Untitled, Linsey Levendall, Acrylic on Cradleboard
Dancy’s vision for the Slow Art Day was simple: slow people down to enjoy beauty and use art as therapy in a difficult world.
She said:
Slow Art Day is the perfect way to focus on the artistic beauty that is everywhere and to briefly escape the many things going wrong in the world. It reinforces how therapeutic art is for the artists and the viewers.
Found and Free, Kylie Severight, Acrylic on Canvas
Northern Lights Gallery also produces slow looking events throughout the year including their mid-summer “Back Alley Tour,” which encourages participants to look slowly at the work-in-progress of local artists (as well as attend workshops and interactive art making experiences).
The Frederiksberg Museums, located in Denmark near Copenhagen, are a group of four museums: Bakkehuset, Storm, Møstings and Cisternerne, all within walking distance of each other – and all participated in Slow Art Day.
Here at Slow Art Day HQ we wish we could have participated in this interesting exhibit.
The way it worked was eight people sat down around a table that had a wooden ball that rolled on a track, eventually stopping in front of a letter. The letter corresponded to cabinets and texts around the room that then formed the framework for a slow conversation. Once the conversation finished, they rolled the ball again spurring yet another slow dialogue. Very cool way of choosing a piece of art (or artifacts).
The New Corner Room at Bakkehuset showing the table with rolling ball, cabinets, and texts.
At the nearby Storm museum, Slow Art Day participants were invited to participate in the study of Danish humor and satire through the work of Robert Storm Peterson, also known as Storm P.
Storm P. at his desk, Storm Museum
In addition to these two in-person events, five guided Slow Looking videos were featured on the Frederiksberg Museums’ YouTube channel.
You can view them (in Danish) below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XELXRXQHPxU
The Frederiksberg Museums host slow looking events twice a week in one of their four venues throughout the year.
They also have some really interesting things planned:
Podcast They are launching a podcast later this year that will focus on mindful Slow Looking.
Mental Health They also plan to integrate Slow Looking into their art and health programs for the mentally vulnerable.
We are glad that the Frederiksberg Museums have brought their collective expertise and creativity to the slow art movement and look forward to their podcast, mental health programs, and design of their 2023 Slow Art Day.
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
For their first Slow Art Day, Galleri Pictor in Munka-Ljungby, Sweden, hosted an in-person slow looking event with visiting art students from Munka folkhögskola.
André Bongibolt, Les 1000 soleils entrevus (64 x 83 cm), mezzotint on paper. Read more.
Participants looking at the artwork by André Bongibolt. Photo courtsey of Galleri Pictor.
On Slow Art Day, the group gathered in a gallery and sat in a half circle in front of a picture by André Bongibolt. They started with relaxing their bodies and minds for a moment before looking slowly at the artwork. Participants were also given a document with slow looking instructions in Swedish, viewable below.
Following this, all participants wrote their thoughts and observations and shared them back with the group. To round off the event, participants reflected on their slow looking experience over a cup of tea and cookies (or ‘biscuits’ as they sometimes say in Europe).
Reflecting on the event, Charlotte Fällman Gleissner shared the following with us:
Even as a gallerist, I seldom give myself time to really see the artwork in a deeper sense – therefore this was a new experience for me too. Further, I now understand how flexible slow-looking is and how it can be used with different kinds of groups in a range of settings. This is wonderful. Thank You!
Charlotte Fällman Gleissner
We at Slow Art Day HQ are excited that Galleri Pictor has joined the slow art movement – and, in fact, we now believe that all slow looking events should end with tea and cookies. That is certainly a best practice!
– Johanna, Phyl, Ashley, Jessica and Robin
PS: Stay in touch with other events at Galleri Pictor via their Instagram
Beatrice, photo courtesy of Averie Shaughnessy-Comfort
Each in-person visitor was given a journal in which to record their thoughts, observations, and ideas with the following attached label:
Through guided observation, visitors were asked to think about the following:
Spend a few moments being present with this piece. Pay attention to thoughts/emotions. As you gaze at the piece, notice your breath and your body.
Describe: What do you see?
Analyze: Think of 4 emotions or words that you associate with this piece.
Inquire: What does this piece tell you about yourself?
As you reflect on these photos, jot down a memory in this shared journal that comes to mind.
Out of Many, photo courtesy of Averie Shaughnessy-Comfort
For visitors who couldn’t make it to the museum, art therapy students at the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania held a Virtual Open Studio. An aspiring art therapist guided visitors through slow looking techniques.
At Slow Art Day HQ we love seeing the use of art therapy techniques for Slow Art Day and look forward to what the Erie Art Museum comes up with, perhaps again in partnership with Edinboro, for their fourth Slow Art Day
Slow Art Day participants Ethan and Rick looking at War Party Pictograph by Unknown Sioux Artist.
Hosts Jill Carlson, AKMA Marketing & Communications Manager, and Amber Wilcox, AKMA Event Manager, invited participants to look at three works of art for 10 minutes. Afterwards, they facilitated an open group discussion for 15 minutes. They then pointed out contextual information about the pieces and how they were acquired.
Paul Pletka (American, b. 1946), I Hear Everything, I Am the Crow, 1990, Acrylic on canvasFritz Scholder (American/Native American – La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, 1937 – 2005), Bicentennial Indian, 1975, LithographUnknown Sioux Artist, War Party Pictograph, 1870 – 1900, Pigment on muslin
The staff enjoyed being able to engage and customize the experience based on what participants saw and said, reporting that this kind of individual immersion was “exactly what we all needed.”
Staff member Amber and visitor Ethan looking at artwork Bicentennial Indian by Fritz Scholder. This work is located on the newly installed “Salon Wall” at the entrance of the building.
We can’t wait to see what the Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art decides to do for Slow Art Day 2023!
