Category Archives: Blog

Cloudless Slow Looking with TarraWarra

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For their third Slow Art Day, the TarraWarra Museum of Art in Melbourne, Australia, invited the public to a mindful slow looking session and group reflection featuring work by David Noonan from the exhibition David Noonan: Only when it’s cloudless . The event was led by Sarah Metzner, museum educator at TarraWarra and a visual, collaborative, and public artist who has been working with different community groups for 30 years.

On Slow Art Day, participants followed a 20-20-20 ratio of time during the hour. They were first welcomed and then invited to look at David Noonan’s artwork “Only when it’s cloudless” for 20 minutes.

David Noonan: Only when it’s cloudless’, installation view, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2022. Courtesy of the artist, Anna Schwartz Gallery, and Modern Art, London. Photo by Christian Capurro.

The group then spent 20 minutes slowly watching David Noonan’s 20 minute film: Mnemosyne, which has a focus on evoking memories (a link to the trailer is included in the picture below) before the session was rounded up with shared reflections for the final 20 minutes.

Note: We recommend you watch the trailer. We found it beautiful, eerie, and a little ominous.

Still from David Noonan’s 20 minute film: Mnemosyne.

The event was well received, with one participant saying that the experience “enhanced my love of art and mindfulness and reminded me to slow down and be present with myself and my practice.”

We look forward to what the TarraWarra Museum of Art comes up with for Slow Art Day 2023.

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, Robin and Phyl

P.S. You can find TarraWarra on Facebook and Instagram.

Slow Down, Live Long, and Live Well at the Sociedade Das Artes in Serra Negra, Brazil

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For their third year, the Sociedade Das Artes in Serra Negra, Brazil held a hybrid Slow Art Week, hosted by artist Henrique Vieira Filho. The Sociedade Das Artes features works by contemporary artists, along with artistic services and products.

Exploring the theme of “Slow Down, Live Long, and Live Well,” the gallery allowed for four visitors at a time and each visitor chose which works of art they wanted to appreciate slowly (note: the gallery asked that visitors RSVP ahead of their visit to secure a time to attend).

Visitors in the gallery space.

Henrique Vieira Filho wrote, as part of the day, “Living at a fast pace certainly has a certain charm (“live fast, die young”), however, I think the alternative is much more interesting: slow down, live a lot, and live well! The Slow Art Movement advocates the experience of time with greater QUALITY for everything and everyone.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Online advertisement
Henrique Vieira Filho holding a copy of O Serrano with an article about Slow Art.

The event was advertised online (see above) and there was also an article written in the local press (also see above).

Visit Google Drive or Facebook to view a video that was created to allow people to explore the exhibit virtually.

We love their focus for 2022 and look forward to seeing what they come up with for next year.

Best,

– Robin, Ashley, Phyl, Johanna, and Jessica Jane

P.S. The Sociedade Das Artes can be found on Instagram and Facebook.

Open-Air Slow Art at Europos Parkas

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For their third Slow Art Day, Europos Parkas, or the “Open-air Museum of the Center of Europe”, held an in-person event hosted by Lina Karosienė of the European Park, and Karen Vanhercke and Justina Kaminskaite of Easel World, an agency focused on connecting people through art.

Located in the geographical center of Europe, near Vilnius, Lithuania, the European Park is an outdoor museum of modern and contemporary art that has been operating since 1991.

Location of Europos Parkas

Their Slow Art Day featured sculptural works by Marius Zavadskis and Adomas Jacovskis, seen below.

Photography courtesy of Gintare Užtupytė
Photography courtesy of Gintare Užtupytė
Marius Zavadskis, Carousal, Photography courtesy of Gytis Juodėnas
Adomas Jacovskis, Lying Head, Photography courtesy of Gytis Juodėnas
Photography courtesy of Gintare Užtupytė

We love sculpture parks and would have enjoyed slowly walking around and inside some of these sculptures.

Participants of the Slow Art Day seemed to love it too – and reported that slowing down changed their relationship to the park and to the art. “Earlier I just saw this park as the place full of objects, and now I see the artworks in a whole new light,” said one. Yes!

The team at European Park also produces year-round Slow Art programming and has created a special route through the park that encourages participants to look at art (and nature) slowly.

This beautiful video in Lithuanian (below) on their YouTube channel gives an idea of how they have done this.

It’s great to have this central European art park participating, especially during this difficult time for the region. We look forward to seeing what they come up with for their fourth Slow Art Day.

– Robin, Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. You can visit European Park’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.

Slow Art Day at the Museum of Gloucester

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For their first Slow Art Day, the Museum of Gloucester, UK, organized an in-person event where participants were invited to explore paintings from their exhibition “Two Millennia of Changing Faces: Gloucester’s Architecture. Fifth century to twentieth century“: a collection that encapsulates the architecture and built heritage of the city of Gloucester.

Flyer of the exhibition “Two Millenia of Changing Faces: Gloucester’s Architecture.”

For the event, visitors were encouraged to slow down and look closely at each piece for 5-10 minutes so that they could ponder how architecture has inspired and shaped stories of Gloucester’s people, culture and industry.

At Slow Art Day HQ we look forward to their next year’s event!

P.S. You can follow them on their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

JJ, Ashley, Johanna, Robin, and Phyl

Gothenburg Museum of Art hosts Slow Art Day Meditation

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For their third Slow Art Day, Sweden’s Gothenburg Museum of Art hosted a meditation session in their exhibition Barbro Östlihn. New York Imprint, featuring renowned post-war Swedish artist, Barbro Östlihn, who was friends with several US-based artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Claes Oldenburg, and Roy Lichtenstein.

Linda Noreen, program coordinator, organized the event, while the meditation was lead by Lars Hain, who has 25 years of leading meditation workshops.

IMG_1444: Barbro Östlihn (1930-1995) Suffolk Street Wall, 1972 Oil on canvas Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Donation 1994 from Anders Lönnqvist, Stockholm.

Once they arrived at the museum, participants were taken to the Barbro Östlihn exhibit, invited to sit down on chairs and cushions, and then led through a meditative slow looking experience.

We’ll note that mixing meditation and slow looking is not new to Gothenburg Museum of Art.

In fact, as part of Slow Art Day 2021, they created a meditative video guide on how to slow down with art (in Swedish), while the museum was forced to close due to the pandemic. If you are a speaker of a Scandinavian language, we recommend viewing the video below for inspiration.

We at Slow Art Day HQ love the mixing of meditation and slow looking and especially appreciate that Gothenburg Museum of Art provided soft chairs and cushions (sounds really comfortable – every museum needs to do this!).

We look forward to seeing what Gothenburg Museum of Art comes up with for their 4th Slow Art Day in 2023.

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica, Phyl and Robin

P.S. You can find the Gothenburg Museum of Art on Facebook and Instagram.

Harn Museum Mixes Cookies and Tea with Slow Looking

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For their 7th Slow Art day, the Harn Museum of Art, located on the campus of The University of Florida in Gainsville, featured 5 artworks from their collection, including:

– Dogon Couple, by Kehinde Wiley
– Northeast Gorge at Appledore, by Childe Hassam
– Pli Selon Pli, by Akiyama Yo
– Waiting for the Signal, by Robert Fichter
– Horizontal Mask (korubla), by a Senufo artist

Host Allysa Peyton, Curator and Student Engagement Manager, and a group of University of Florida student ambassadors greeted participants with a flier that spelled out instructions, featured art works, and space to draw or take notes (see below).

Slow Art Day 2022 worksheet – Allysa Peyton
Harn Student Ambassadors welcome visitors.



The Harn instructed attendees to spend 10-12 minutes with each of the five featured artworks and encouraged them to not only draw or make notes, but also to reflect on the experience of looking slowly – and how what they see in the art may change over time.

After the slow looking session, everyone then gathered for tea, cookies, and discussion.

Educators and curators in the slow looking movement should take a look at their simple flyer (attached above) and consider copying elements of their approach for future sessions.

Akiyama Yo, Pli Selon Pli, 2002
Kehinde Wiley, Dogon Couple, 2008
Robert Fichter, Waiting for the Signal, 1981
Senufo Artist, Horizontal Mask (korubla), 20th century

The Harn Museum of Art has also launched a year-round program Art & Mindfulness, which incorporates slow looking and guided meditations in 40-minute workshops.

We at Slow Art Day HQ like the incorporation of drawing and notes – and especially appreciate the cookies and tea (yum, yum) at the end – and we look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2023.

Best,

– Robin, Ashley, Phyl, Jessica Jane, and Johanna

P.S. The Harn Museum of Art can be found on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

Art Gallery of St. Albert Creates a Simple Guide for Slow Looking

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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.

slowartday-Leah-LoudenDownload

And we look forward to what St. Albert’s comes up with for Slow Art Day 2023.

– Jessica Jane, Ashley, Johanna, Robin, Phyl

Light and Movement at Wanås Konst’s Fifth Slow Art Day

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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

View Open Source (Cinemaskope) in motion.

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!

– Robin, Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Wanås Konst can be found on Instagram and Facebook.

Drawing and Coloring at MAM in Montana

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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.

Jessica Jane, Ashley, Johanna, Robin, and Phyl

P.S. MAM can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube

Silence and Connections in the heart of Berlin

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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.

Best,

– Jessica Jane, Johanna, Robin, Ashley, and Phyl