For their third Slow Art Day, the Art Gallery at Evergreen in Coquitlam, Canada, invited visitors to look slowly at two artworks from their touring exhibition “Paths” for 5-10 minutes each:
Both artworks were part of the 2024 Capture Photography Festival Selected Exhibition Program.
Silas Ng, “Music in My Eyes,” 2020, site-specific installation at the Art Gallery at Evergreen, Evergreen Cultural Centre, 2024. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography. @racheltophamphotography
Still from a video featuring an interior pan of Sarah Anne Johnson’s “Woodland” across several window panels at the Lafarge Lake-Douglas SkyTrain Station. Woodland was presented at Evergreen in partnership with TransLink.
On the day, all visitors were invited to look slowly at one or both artworks using the below provided prompts. We encourage museum educators to take a look.
The activity was self-directed, but after doing individual slow looking, participants could discuss their experience with gallery assistant Kim Grewal, or were encouraged to share their reflections on Instagram. Before leaving, they were also invited to continue the slow looking experience by spending time with some of Evergreen’s public artworks, located only steps away from the gallery.
The exhibition “Paths” featured artwork by twenty-two Canadian artists, two of which were placed in focus for the Slow Art Day event. We’ll note that one of the featured artists, Silas Ng, is deaf, and explores this in his work. In fact, his featured work “Music in My Eyes,” 2020, encourages slow lookers to think creatively as they spend time with the art.
We look forward to seeing what Art Gallery Evergreen comes up with for Slow Art Day 2025.
– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with events at Art Gallery Evergreen through their Instagram or Facebook.
For their first Slow Art Day, Cline House Gallery in Cornwall, (Ontario) Canada, invited the public to look slowly at art by Giuseppe Di Leo, who was in attendance at the event.
Slow Art Day poster.
On arrival, participants were given a handout with slow looking prompts that first instructed them not to read anything about the artworks before looking at them. We at Slow Art Day HQ love this instruction – and have even seen hosts hide all artwork info – because it really encourages the viewer to slow down and build their own personal relationship with the art first.
Participant looking slowly at art by Giuseppe Di Leo during the Slow Art Day event.Participants looking slowly at art by Giuseppe Di Leo during the Slow Art Day event.
Participants were instructed to find any work in the Gallery that they felt drawn to and look at it slowly, using the below prompts to guide them through their experience.
After the individual slow looking, gallery educator Sean George and the featured artist, Giuseppe Di Leo, led a discussion with participants about their slow looking experience. At Slow Art Day HQ, we love to see artists participating directly in the slow looking event, and believe it is just as rich of a discovery for them to see how their works are perceived by the viewers as it is for the slow lookers.
Artist Giuseppe Di Leo with one of his artworks.
Visual Arts Coordinator, Emily MacLeod, reported that the event was a success and the Gallery is already looking forward to hosting their second Slow Art Day in 2025. We are excited to see what they come up with next.
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with events at Cline House Gallery through Instagram.
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!).
For their first Slow Art Day, the Glengarry Artists’ Collective, a volunteer-driven organization of artists in eastern rural Ontario, Canada, designed “The BIG Show”, an event highlighting local art and artists.
The Collective’s mission is to create programs focused on community, and they encouraged visitors to slowly look at a selection of 149 artworks by 39 artists. About 300 participants attended the event.
Slow looking participants at the Glengarry Collective Slow Art Day event, 2023.
Ahead of Slow Art Day, the Collective posted a promo on their website and printed posters for the venue.
On April 15th, they welcomed participants at the venue and encouraged them to use the following prompts when viewing the artworks:
Look Take time (5 to 10 minutes) and slowly let your eyes wander all over the work. Look at it from different angles and distances.
Observe Notice the colors, shapes, textures and markings on the surface of the artwork. Where does your eye focus?
Feel What words come to mind about this art work? How do you feel looking at this art work? Does it evoke any memories?
Share Share your experience of the work with someone or post an image of the work online with a word of reflection and #slowartday2023.
Slow looking participants at the Glengarry Collective Slow Art Day event, 2023.
Slow looking participant contemplating an image from a distance at the Glengarry Collective Slow Art Day event, 2023.
The hosts Alison Hall and Yvonne Callaway toured the venue, looking and talking with visitors. They agreed to let the audience choose the works they wanted to look at slowly, rather than imposing a selection on them. The photos above offer a sense of the engagement generated. They told us at Slow Art Day that, “There was lots of art talk, more than at most shows. People engaged with the works and each other.”
We love that the Glengarry Collective was able to bring out so many people in rural Canada and look forward to what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2024.
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
PS. Stay up to date about events by the Glengarry Collective via their Facebook page
The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, one of the largest museums in North America, hosted its first Slow Art Day in 2023, with a simple design: participants were invited to look slowly at art in two rooms of the gallery before discussing their experiences together.
Slow Art Day poster. National Gallery of Canada
Slow Art Day participants at the National Gallery of Canada, 2023. Featured artworks: Kazuo Nakamura, Landscape, Spring, 1959. Oil on masonite, 93.6 x 121.5 cm; Kazuo Nakamura, August, Morning Reflections, 1961. Oil on canvas, 93.7 x 121.5 cm. Both paintings are located at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Respectively purchased in 1960 and 1961. Photos: NGC
On April 15, educator Andrea Gumpert and interpreter Valérie Mercier greeted English and French speaking participants in the Great Hall. After a quick grounding exercise and a collective slow looking warm up, participants were taken to two different galleries for their slow looking. They were given a few prompts to keep in mind during each session, including choosing to read or ignore the artwork labels.
Participants were first invited to select a piece in a gallery with only figurative works (Indigenous and Canadian Galleries – A110). They spent 10 minutes looking at their chosen artworks before sharing thoughts.
This was repeated for 15 minutes in a different gallery with a variety of figurative and abstract paintings and Inuit sculptures (Indigenous and Canadian Galleries – A112). After the second session, participants compared experiences from each gallery.
In the sharing sessions, participants remarked that their impressions of the works grew more nuanced as they spent time with them. Some found themselves asking questions about painting techniques or of the artist’s life. Two participants in the French speaking group requested to spend time with Riopelle’s Pavane, and enjoyed the exchange so much that they decided to lunch together afterwards despite not knowing each other beforehand.
In addition to the public group experience, the Gallery also suggested that participants participate on their own or watch the guided slow look of Rembrandt’s Heroine via a video produced by the museum. Several people on social media commented positively about Slow Art Day, and others wrote to the Gallery asking if the exercise would be repeated. A few staff also suggested the approach be offered on an ongoing basis.
The slow looking event was first tested in staff sessions at the Gallery in March prior to the public event in April. Andrea and Valérie ran the program with staff to 1) offer a team building exercise, and 2) test their approach and work out any kinks ahead of the public program. The staff loved it and later answered a survey, including this note from Dina Groulx, Corporate Relations Officer:
I genuinely enjoyed every minute of the tour […]. What a treat it was for me to have experienced that. As a remote employee, it felt very impactful. I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I signed up, but I was so glad to have invested time out of my day for myself. I also thought of how lucky I was as an employee to have had access to the quietness of the space (most of the time) and I realized that as the pilot took place on Monday, it created a calm retreat experience. It was so nice to go through that experience with colleagues outside of my regular work and made connections with them and with the art in a way that I had never experienced before.
Dina Groulx, Corporate Relations Officer
Taking inspiration from the National Gallery of Canada, we strongly recommend that other museums and galleries imitate what they have done and run slow looking sessions with their staff.
Note that the National Gallery of Canada also ran an effective marketing campaign. Their Slow Art Day event was featured in an article by Chelsea Osmond in the National Gallery of Canada Magazine and advertised on local radio stations. The Gallery also promoted the event via social media posts and in their monthly newsletter.
We are so glad the National Gallery of Canada has joined the Slow Art Day movement, and we look forward to the creative design they come up with for 2024.
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Take a look at these concluding remarks from educator Andrea Gumpert:
“Participation in the Slow Art Day requires little preparation, links the Gallery to a broader global movement and aligns directly with the Strategic Plan. The approach also benefits visitors by reported reduction in stress levels, improved concentration levels and a better ability to foster empathy. As the participants in the Gallery’s Slow Art Day expressed, slow and careful looking helps to unravel complexity, build connections and see things from multiple perspectives. Finally, since slow looking is inclusive: everyone can take part and no prior knowledge is required. For those who want to practice slow looking with art, no art historical knowledge is required giving confidence in one’s own abilities to visit a museum and to understand works of art for oneself. The Gallery is ideally placed to continue the annual Slow Art Day event and might consider further opportunities to host slow looking programs for the public as well as the staff.”
Andrea Gumpert, educator at the National Gallery of Canada
For their 4th Slow Art day, the Art Gallery of St. Albert, Canada had 44 visitors who took part in slow looking while viewing their current exhibitions “Connected Currents” by Kelsey Stephenson, and “LandEscape” by Crystal Lee Clark.
Exhibition view of “Connected Currents” by Kelsey Stephenson.
The gallery also provided a free art activity for all ages where visitors could create a collage bookmark inspired by Connected Currents. Younger guests were encouraged to try an iSpy activity carefully looking around the gallery to find smaller sections of the different art pieces on display.
People often ask us: what’s the best kind of art for people to look at slowly? And before we answer, they often offer what they think must be true – i.e., that only *large* scale art can maintain the attention of slow lookers. Our answer, however, (based on experience) has been that everything works *including* small-scale art.
We are glad to say that The Gardiner Museum in Toronto, Canada proved once again that tiny art captivates.
For their fourth Slow Art Day, The Gardiner featured Montreal-based self-taught artist Karine Giboulo’s “immersive reimagining” of her home, with over 500 *miniature* polymer clay figures arranged throughout the tiny rooms. The small figures are intended to invite viewers to reflect on societal challenges, such as connectedness and isolation during the recent pandemic, the impact of aging, the climate crisis, food insecurity, housing instability, and consumerism. And they are indeed captivating.
On Slow Art Day itself, participants were given a worksheet with questions that lead them through the process of slow looking, and included a space to sketch. They were then encouraged to speak with two members of the Gardiner Museum team: Sofia Flores-Ledesma, Programs and Education Assistant, and Emma Wan, Victoria College, Material Culture Intern.
We invite you to discover the power of slow looking at miniature art by downloading their worksheet below, then lazily gazing at the images from their exhibition that follow (and maybe trying a few sketches).
Sofia Flores-Ledesma wrote to us and said that not only did the miniatures dazzle, but that the conversations on the day of the event were so engaging that they did not take any photos as planned. They were just too busy listening to the captivated participants talk about their experience.
Every year, The Gardiner does something interesting for Slow Art Day, and we love what they did for 2023: i.e, featuring Giboulo’s miniature scenes of ordinary life, which offer hidden surprises (this is another pitch for you to download their worksheet and do some slow looking yourself).
We can’t wait to see what the Gardiner Museum comes up with for Slow Art Day 2024.
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.
Earlier this year, the Gardiner Museum, Canada’s ceramics museum, hosted a Slow Art Day event focusing on the social, political, and environmental themes explored in the exhibition Shary Boyle: Outside the Palace of Me. Education Manager, Farrukh Rafiq, guided attendees in slow looking activities and engaged them in a discussion about the works on display.
Shary Boyle: Outside the Palace of Me
As a multi-sensory installation, Shary Boyle: Outside the Palace of Me explores how we see ourselves and each other through drawings, ceramic sculpture, life-sized automatons, two-way mirrors, coin-operated sculpture, and an interactive score.
More information about the exhibit and the Gardiner Museum can be found on the links above and via their social media pages: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
This is the third year that Toronto’s Gardiner Museum has held a slow art event and we can’t wait to see what they come up with next year.
For their 9th(!) Slow Art Day, the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Canada, hosted a virtual slow looking session organized by Information Officer Olga Kolotylo together with Education Officer Teresa Gregorio.
On April 2, participants looked slowly at artworks by Denyse Thomasos (1964-2012), Alexandra Luke, the Painters Eleven, and others.
At the start of the session, participants were first given context about the land which the McMaster is located on, which traditionally belongs to the Hadenosaunee and Anishinaabe nations. Slow Art Day was then introduced, and The McMaster presented the following advice for slow looking:
Get comfortable
Pay attention to your senses
Open yourself up
Allow yourself to enter the artwork
Trust your intuition
Share your findings
Look again
For the remainder of the time, participants were given silence to look slowly followed then by discussion.
The session was recorded and is available to watch below. We encourage art educators to check out the video for inspiration and ideas, including Kolotylo’s moderation and the way she did not reveal the artist or title until the end of each conversation.
Slow Art Day 2022 at the McMaster Museum of Art.
At Slow Art Day HQ, we love the longtime leadership of the McMaster Museum of Art in the slow looking movement and eagerly look forward to what they create in 2023.
We can’t wait to see what the McMaster Museum of Art comes up with for Slow Art Day in 2023.
– Johanna, Jessica Jane, Ashley, Phyl and Robin
P.S. You can stay updated with events at the McMaster Museum of Art via their IG page.
P.P.S. I, Johanna, feel especially nostalgic when I write about the McMaster events, since their event was one of the first reports I put together for Slow Art Day when I joined the team.
