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The Significant Blue Bead at Gorgas House Museum in Alabama

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For their third Slow Art Day, the Gorgas House Museum, which is the oldest dwelling on the campus of the University of Alabama, hosted an event focused on a bohemian blue bead that was found behind the museum and is believed to have once belonged to an enslaved person.

Slow Art Day coordinator, Dr. Sharony Green, Associate Professor at the Department of History at the University of Alabama, asked her students to study the bead and slavery in advance of the event, then create art based on their study (some even created haikus). She then invited the campus and local community to slowly look at the bead and hear about the students’ work.

Visitors were also invited to use bead stations that were set up in the front parlor of Gorgas House to make a blue bead bracelet to commemorate the event.

Photo of one of Dr Green’s Students. Photo by Sharony Green.
Photo of two UA anthropologists studying the blue bead. Photo by Sharony Green.
Slow Art Day: The Blue Bead Project
A Blue Bead (WordPress)

Above is a preview/link to the website they used to promote the project.

The bead station at Gorgas House before the event began. Photo by Sharony Green.

Dr. Green gave us some history about the bead:

The bead was found in an outdoor cooking area and was likely owned by an enslaved person. Some researchers believe it arrived via the Pacific Northwest and was brought to the Deep South via an indigenous trade network and that it was subsequently used as a protection amulet by an enslaved worker. While we speculate, we can also study the bead and sort through its significance during the antebellum period.

Dr. Sharony Green

Here’s a link to view some of the projects from Dr. Green’s students: Blue Bead Project Catalogue, and below you can scan a few of their photos and videos. All students took either an introductory level History class or an upper level History class taught by Dr. Green.

At Slow Art Day HQ we love how Dr. Green designed this whole Slow Art Day program – and that one small object, a bead, and its deep historical significance, became the point of inspiration for Slow Art Day. Thank you to Dr. Sharony Green, and her students, for such a unique event, and we look forward to whatever they come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with future events at the Gorgas House via their social media @TheGorgasHouse

A friendship bracelet and student sewn piece. Photo by Rebecca Johnson.

Locals Sketch for Slow Art Day at the Art Gallery of St. Albert

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For their 2024 Slow Art Day (their fifth!), the Art Gallery of St. Albert in Canada invited local sketch groups to visit the exhibition Threading Through Time by Jamaican visual artist Raneece Buddan. Director Leah Louden told us they chose to focus on Raneece’s exhibition, in part because her work “rewards the viewer with lots of fine details you only discover through careful observation.”

Slow Art Day participants sketching works by Raneece Buddan, Threading Through Time (exhibition view), 2024. Photo by Brenda Lakeman.
Slow Art Day participants sketching works by Raneece Buddan, Threading Through Time (exhibition view), 2024. Photo by Brenda Lakeman.

This year, the museum decided to partner with a series of local organizations who could bring in “sketch groups” including the Edmonton Art Club, The Federation of Canadian Artists Edmonton Chapter, Sketch Around YEG Club, and the St. Albert Visual Arts Council Guilds.

Upon arrival, the groups were offered both free refreshments and free drawing materials. In total, over 30 visitors joined. Some participants stayed for an extended period of time, spending 2 hours drawing and slowly appreciating the artwork.

All visitors were encouraged to choose a single artwork in the show, and then look and sketch slowly. The museum also provided prompts (see below – and feel free to copy!).

slowartdayDownload

Staff were on hand to answer questions and more in-depth information about the art and about the process of slow looking/sketching.

We can’t wait to see what the Art Gallery of St. Albert comes up with for their next Slow Art Day event in 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with events at the Art Gallery of St. Albert via their social media: @ArtGalleryofStAlbert on Facebook and Instagram

The Barnes Foundation Hosts Their 5th Slow Art Day

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For Slow Art Day 2024 – their 5th Slow art Day, the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia invited visitors to look slowly at five artworks from their collection:

  • Cezanne’s Card Players
  • Soutine’s Flayed Rabbit
  • Renoir’s Before The Bath
  • Claude Monet’s The Studio Boat
  • Picasso’s Young Woman Holding a Cigarette
Paul Cézanne. The Card Players (Les Joueurs de cartes), 1890–1892, Oil on canvas. The Barnes Foundation, BF564.
Chaim Soutine. Flayed Rabbit (Le Lapin écorché), c. 1921, Oil on canvas. The Barnes Foundation, BF333. © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Before the Bath (Avant le bain), c. 1875, Oil on canvas. The Barnes Foundation, BF9.
Claude Monet. The Studio Boat (Le Bateau-atelier), 1876, Oil on canvas. The Barnes Foundation, BF730.
Pablo Picasso. Young Woman Holding a Cigarette (Jeune femme tenant une cigarette), 1901, Oil on canvas. The Barnes Foundation, BF318. © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

After looking slowly at these artworks, the many participants went to the Kean Family Classroom for an opportunity to talk together. This is the moment that Slow Art Day becomes community – a time to reflect, see through each other’s eyes, and create both intimacy and joy.

Led by Michael Williamson, Senior Instructor in Adult Education, the discussion among the participants was indeed so good – people felt so connected to the art and to each other – that it went way beyond the scheduled time allotted for it.

Giving expression to the exuberance that everyone felt, Williamson called the event a “resounding success.”

Below you will find a photo from the conversation – and their very cool handout (feel free to copy!).

Slow Art Day participants engaging in discussion in the Kean Family Room

The Barnes Foundation Slow Art Day hand-out.

In terms of marketing, the Barnes Foundation promoted Slow Art Day on their website, Instagram, and Facebook.

At Slow Art Day HQ we get inspired by these reports that come in from around the world – from big museums, and small, to highly influential organizations like The Barnes.

The Barnes, which has a long history of fostering slow looking at art, has become a great leader in our global movement and we look forward to seeing what they come up with for 2025, which also happens to be their centennial year.

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

“Tell Me Stories”: Slow Art Day at Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio

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This year the city-wide Slow Art Day phenomenon continued in Bloomington, Illinois, with 20(!) participating museums and art galleries. And, for the third year running, Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio participated.

For their contribution to the citywide Slow Art Day, Angel Ambrose featured “Tell Me Stories”, a painting that had been on long-term loan at Illinois State University’s Alumni Center on Michigan Avenue in Downtown Chicago.

Angel Ambrose, “Tell Me Stories”. Over 3 1/2’ x 4 1/2’.

On Slow Art Day, Angel invited visitors of all ages to the studio gallery to take a slow look and hear about the stories behind the painting between 10 AM – 2 PM.

Angel welcomed all participants and asked them to take 3-5 minutes or more to contemplate “Tell Me Stories” or another artwork using some of the following prompts for slow looking.

She came up with some good prompts, as you see below.

—- Prompts

For your head (objective thought/intellect) you can consider any of the following:

  • What did you see?
  • What decisions did you notice that Angel made in her painting—line, color, texture, form, repetition, contrast, etc?
  • Was there a color scheme/theme apparent?
  • Notice the paint—can you see individual brushstrokes, or a smooth surface, or perhaps another tool was used to apply the paint?
  • How was movement used in the artwork?
  • Was the piece representational, abstracted, or somewhere between? Why do you think Angel chose this format?

For your heart (feelings/emotions), consider the following:

  • How did you feel when you looked at the work?
  • Did the colors evoke any emotions?
  • What did these feelings make you think about?
  • Did your mood change after looking at the artwork?
  • Did you experience any personal significance to the piece?

Artist Angel Ambrose and her “Management of Time” triptych at Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio.

During the day, visitors could also visit any of the 20 Bloomington Slow Art Day locations free of charge. The day concluded with a closing reception at The Hangar Art Co. from 2 – 4 PM for participants from all venues.

The Eaton Gallery was the first to host a Slow Art Day in Bloomington. In 2020 at the height of the pandemic, they organized a walk up/drive by exhibition. Then in 2022 Eaton and other Bloomington galleries pioneered hosting a city-wide Slow Art Day – and Angel Ambrose was in that original group.

At Slow Art Day HQ we have eagerly followed the growth of Slow Art Day in Bloomington along Route 66. We (unsurprisingly) like to take things slow, but the fast spread of the citywide movement in Bloomington (and now around the world) both calms and excites us.

We can’t wait to see what Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio comes up with for Bloomington’s citywide Slow Art Day in 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with events at Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio via their Facebook page.

P.P.S. We are hearing rumors that the state of Illinois might host a *statewide* Slow Art Day in 2025. Stay tuned.

Revelatory Slow Art Day at Maryhill Museum of Art

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For their fourth Slow Art Day, Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington, invited visitors to join their Curator of Education, Sorcha Meek Paul, in a lively and ‘revelatory’ slow looking session focused on two paintings in the museum’s 2024 exhibition “Wallula to the Sea”, curated by Steve Grafe.

The two paintings were:

  • ‘Journey’ by Chinook artist Greg A. Robinson
  • ‘Wallula to the Sea’, a quadriptych, by Erik Sandgren

Sorcha Meek Paul presenting Erik Sandgren’s artwork ‘Wallula to the Sea’ for Slow Art Day, 2024.

Sorcha Meek Paul with a participant, engaging with Erik Sandgren’s artwork ‘Wallula to the Sea’ for Slow Art Day, 2024.

Slow looking at ‘Wallula to the Sea’ for Slow Art Day, 2024.

Slow looking at Chinook artist Greg A. Robinson’s artwork, titled ‘Journey’, for Slow Art Day, 2024.

Ahead of Slow Art Day, the event was advertised via the museum’s website, Instagram and Facebook accounts. Sorcha also shared a post on her personal Instagram account. On the day itself, visitors responded to the invitation for “lively discussion” and participated in an interactive session with Sorcha (as we can see in the photos).

On the museum’s website, two lines in the description of the event caught our attention whilst writing this report – they point to the ‘revelatory’ nature of their Slow Art Day:

Looking creates dialogue which then reveals details, understanding, and life-long skills for looking at and connecting with art and art museums. No experience necessary.

Maryhill Museum of Art website (invitation to the Slow Art Day event)

This sums up the principle of Slow Art Day in a beautiful way. Thank you, Maryhill Museum of Art for these words, and for your great event.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with all events at the Maryhill Museum of Art via their social media: @maryhillmuseum

First Slow Art Day Held in Athens, Greece

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This year the B&E Goulandris Foundation in Athens became the first museum in the Greek capital to host a Slow Art Day event.

The Foundation’s Slow Art Day included more than 200 visitors who looked slowly at these four artworks from their permanent collection:

  • “Caparisoned horse”, a funerary figurine from China’s Tang Dynasty (8th century)
  • “The Red Fish” by A.R. Penck on the second floor
  • “Large Study in Cadmium Red” by George Rorris on the third floor
  • “London Cityscape Piccadilly Circus I” by Chryssa on the fourth floor
The Red Fish by A. R. Penck, 1982 – one of four artworks chosen for Slow Art Day.

Visitors were invited to take a leaflet with slow looking prompts for their session, and were encouraged to keep it for their next visit. Facilitators also encouraged all visitors to discuss their Slow Art Day experiences with friends as well as to share on social media, using the hashtag #SlowArtDay.

Separately, The Foundation also co-hosted two mindfulness sessions with art historian, educator and mindfulness instructor Lydia Petropoulou.

Those sessions focused on Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s work “Ninety-nine Heads”, with the first session being for both adults and children aged 7+, while the second one was for adults only.

99 Heads by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, 1952.

The mindfulness sessions, they said, aimed to help participants become active, conscious viewers, encouraging them to draw information from what they see and feel instead of what they already know.

The B&E Goulandris Foundation submitted over 100 photos from their event for this report, which capture the beauty of slow looking at a range of the museum’s collection (we have included a few of those photos below our signature line).

We can’t wait to see what the B&E Goulandris Foundation comes up with for Slow Art Day 2025!

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

See a selection of photos below.

Boston Athenaeum Hosts First Slow Art Day

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For their first Slow Art Day, Boston Athenaeum in Massachusetts invited participants to join one of four 30-minute slow looking and discussion sessions. (Note: As well as being a museum and cultural center, the Athenaeum is also one of America’s oldest member supported libraries.)

Slow Art Day participants being led in discussion by a docent. Photo by Fritz Holznagel.

The slow looking sessions were led by volunteer docents as well as the children’s librarian. The docents selected the works of art for slow looking, including works by Bradley Phillips, Allan Rohan Crite, and Polly (Ethel) Thayer.

The Empire City, 1987. Bradley Phillips (American, 1929–1991).

Marble Players, 1938. Allan Rohan Crite (American, 1910–2007).

Self Portrait, 1943. Polly (Ethel) Thayer (1904–2006).
Donald Starr, 1935. Polly (Ethel) Thayer (1904–2006).

Visitors to the Athenaeum who didn’t participate in the scheduled slow looking sessions were offered a slow looking hand-out (attached below), and were invited to select a piece of art for their own slow looking. They also received a blank piece of paper, clipboard and pencil to help them sketch and/or list what they were noticing.

Slow-Art-Day-handoutDownload

We are so glad to welcome the Boston Athenaeum to the global slow looking movement and are eager to see what design they come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl.

PS. You can find details of other events at the Boston Athenaeum via their Instagram or Facebook page.

Slow Music Comes to Antwerp

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Armond Storck, the Scriptor at Sint-Pauluskerk (St. Paul’s Church) in Antwerp, who has spearheaded the Slow Art Day movement in churches, is now planning, with his colleagues, a 12 hour slow music concert on July 27, 2024.

First, more about Storck’s support for Slow Art Day.

Storck and his colleagues have hosted seven previous Slow Art Day events and they passionately believe 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.

As a result of Storck’s efforts to evangelize Slow Art Day to other churches, this year there were four churches in Antwerp participating, each of which had gone through preparation and training coordinated by an organization called the Tourism Pastoral and Monumental Churches Antwerp.

Now back to his plans for slow music.

On July 27, titular-organist Bart Rodyns will play Erik Satie’s Vexations for 12 hours (6 a.m.-6 p.m.) at five different locations throughout St. Paul’s Church in Antwerp.

Interestingly, this piece of music from 1893 has only 18 notes, divided into 3 lines, which are repeated 840 times according to an arithmetic scheme. Spending the day listening to this should be meditative and hypnotic, perhaps revelatory.

Here’s how it will work:
– 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Bart will play the harmonium in the high choir
– 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Bart will play the piano in ‘t Schooltje during breakfast
– 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Participants will hear Bart on the electric piano in the Calvary
– 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Bart will play the historic organ in the church
– 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Finally, Bart will finish his marathon in the crypt on a chest organ

The amazing historic organ, pictured below, features three manuals, a pedal board, seventy-four registers, and 3,303 pipes. Oh my.

Sint-Pauluskerk historic organ – photo copyright Reinhard

And here is a photo of Bart Rodyns in his “Satie” outfit (i.e., dressed like the composer). Love that Victorian-era purple/blue long-tailed double-breasted coat and floral (or paisley?) waistcoat. And the yellow trousers? Fantastic. The glasses add a modern touch.

Food will be available: Breakfast in the morning, then starting in the afternoon snacks, beer and wine at “democratic prices.”

If you are in Antwerp, go.

If you are not, then consider traveling for this extraordinary slow musical experience.

– Phyl

P.S. For more information, consult this article (it’s in Dutch so use Google to translate if you need it in English or another language).

Slow Puzzles at the Eskenazi Museum of Art 

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For their second Slow Art Day, the Eskenazi Museum of Art in Bloomington, Indiana, offered visitors a wide range of activities, including in-gallery sketching, snacks, self guided tours, discussion, and an art-based puzzle contest. Note that the museum is part of the growing Bloomington city-wide Slow Art Day event – which this year included more than 20 museums and galleries across the city (remarkable!).

For the slow looking activity, three artworks were highlighted by Eskenazi, though guests were encouraged to pick any piece in the collection:

“Swing Landscape” by Stuart Davis

“Matter” video by Adam Magyar
Below is a still image from the video.

“Flight of a Thousand Birds” by Anila Agha

To facilitate individual slow looking and discussions, the museum re-used their slow looking hand-out from last year (with a few tweaks). We invite all museum curators and Slow Art Day hosts to view the particularly well-designed hand-out below.

V2_SocialSaturday-SeeThinkWonderActivity-2023.04-1-1Download

Keaton Clulow, Public Experiences Manager, shared that the puzzle contest was particularly popular. For that, guests were asked to spend at least ten minutes with “Swing Landscape” by Stuart Davis before attempting to put together a giant 3D puzzle of the piece from memory. 

Visitor viewing “Swing Landscape” by Stuart Davis.

The museum was also successful at involving all generations, including young people (see below).

Slow looking participant viewing an artwork in the museum. Photo by Shanti Knight.

At Slow Art Day HQ we love the creativity the Eskenazi brings to designing its Slow Art Day activities. We know we would enjoy working on the “slow-puzzle.”

We can’t wait to see what the Eskenazi Museum of Art comes up with for next year’s Blooming citywide event (which may turn into a statewide event – stay tuned).

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. You can follow @eskenazimuseum on Facebook and Instagram.

P.P.S. The museum asked us to include this statement: The museum wishes to acknowledge and honor the myaamiaki, Lënape, Bodwéwadmik, and saawanwa people, whose ancestral homelands and resources Indiana University Bloomington occupies.

Slow Art Day in Köping, Sweden

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For their second Slow Art Day, Köpings Museum in Sweden organized both an in-person as well as an online slow-looking event. Additionally, this year the local library in Köping participated in Slow Art Day by borrowing a painting from the museum to use for slow looking.

Visitors to Köpings Museum were invited to join a slow-looking guided tour in the exhibit “A picture – a story” (“En bild – en historia”) by Ulf Rehnholm and Inger Holmberg.

Exhibition poster for the exhibition “A Picture – A History”

Visitors were also offered the below slow-looking instructions (in Swedish) for a self-guided option, as well as paper binoculars to help focus on details in the art.

SLOW-ART-DAY_Instruktion-liggande2024Download

The museum also offered an online slow-looking alternative through their Facebook page, where they shared instructions and the below photo of “Solar Altar” by Lars Lindeberg from the museum’s collection.

“Solar Altar” by Lars Lindeberg (1925-2011). Color lithograph, 1999. The artwork belongs to Köping municipality’s art collection. The image was used for Köpings Museum’s digital Slow Art Day event.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love seeing the library and museum work together – this is a great partnership that should inspire other museums around the world to work with their local libraries. Perhaps next year we will see more such partnerships develop.

In the meantime, we look forward to what Köpings Museum and the Köping Library come up with for 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with future events at Köpings museum via their Facebook page

P.P.S. There is no possessive apostrophe in Swedish – so Köpings Museum is written without that apostrophe (in English it would be Köping’s Museum).