Tag Archives: citywide

“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.

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.

Rome Joins the Citywide Slow Art Day Movement

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Rome (Italy) has joined the citywide Slow Art Day movement!

Valentina Gnesutta, the Art Historical Curator for the Directorate of Civic Museums for the city of Rome, reached out to let us know that they are hosting special events in three of their museums for Slow Art Day 2024.

The three Roman museums participating in their coordinated citywide Slow Art Day are:

The citywide movement began in Antwerp, Belgium with museums, and now churches, and then took a big leap in Bloomington, Illinois, which is now hosting 20 museums and galleries for their coordinated Slow Art Day (they deserve a lot of credit for building the largest citywide, which is likely to go statewide soon).

Taking inspiration from Bloomington and Antwerp, other cities like Rome and California’s Saratoga are embracing the citywide movement.

And, of course, this year’s Slow Art Day is coming up this Saturday, April 13. There are major museums, sculpture parks, galleries, churches, and cities all coming together to help the world slow down and learn to look at and love art.

We hope you have a wonderful Slow Art Day 2024 wherever you are in the world – and that you take inspiration from Valentina Gnesutta and hundreds of others across every continent 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!

Bloomington Plans *20* Citywide Venues

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For the 15th annual Slow Art Day coming up in less than two weeks, Bloomington, Illinois, the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the Illinois Route 66 Commission and others (see poster below) have organized under the leadership of gallerist Pamala Eaton and others, more than 20 – that’s right, 20! – participating galleries and museums.

Pamala and her husband Herb launched the first Slow Art Day in Bloomington in the spring of 2020, at the height of the pandemic with a “Window Walk-By.” They placed art in their gallery window and asked people to walk, cycle, or drive slowly by and look. That initial creative effort during Covid has bloomed into what is now the largest citywide Slow Art Day in the world.

When I asked Pamala Eaton why she has put so much energy into spearheading the growth of Slow Art Day, she talked about her passion for art, which has taken root since her retirement from her first career as a teacher and physical education instructor. She now strongly believes that experiencing art, especially slowly, can be very powerful for everyone including the uninitiated. In other words, Eaton shares both the love of art *and* the spirit of radical inclusivity that guides so many of us.

That passion has also driven Eaton to build and extend the artist community in Bloomington as a way to grow Slow Art Day. In the early years of hosting, Eaton connected with artist Janean Baird, who hosted and then brought together the growing Slow Art Day movement with the historic Route 66 commission, which took up the effort and promoted it wider. Then another artist and gallerist, Santino Lamancusa, began to design the terrific posters (see above) and host after-events with artists and others thereby further growing the community.

Bit by bit, brick by brick, show by show, Eaton, Baird, Lamancusa and others grew Slow Art Day in Bloomington from one gallery in 2021, to nine in 2022, to 15 in 2023, and now 20 in 2024.

But there’s more.

Eaton and her colleagues in Bloomington have inspired other cities around the world, including much bigger cities (we were just contacted by one of Europe’s grandest cities about a coordinated citywide – more about that in the next week or so).

We hope you have a wonderful and slow 2024 art day wherever you are in the world – and that you take inspiration from how Eaton and the 20 galleries and museums in Bloomington have turned Slow Art Day into a citywide celebration.

– 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!

Corridor Contemporary’s First Slow Art Day in Philadelphia, PA

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On April 15, Corridor Contemporary, located in the vibrant Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA, hosted their first Slow Art Day in conjunction with the debut of their exhibition Printed Perspectives.

The location in Philadelphia is a sister gallery to owner Erez Zemach’s main gallery in Tel Aviv, both of which exhibit emerging and established Israeli and international artists. They showcase a range of contemporary art from figurative and photorealism to fresh contributions of graffiti and the wider street art vibe.

They kept the design of their Slow Art Day event simple, and recommended that participants choose at least 3 artworks and view them slowly for 5 minutes (perhaps even using a timer). They prompted viewers to consider what other areas of their life might benefit from intentionally slowing down.

Flyer for the event.

Main gallery at Corridor Contemporary.
Participants slowly viewing a work in the main gallery.

The gallery reported that they had quite a successful event with about 100 visitors attending throughout the day. I had the pleasure of being one of those participants, and was particularly drawn to the work of West Philadelphia artist King Saladeen in his solo exhibition: No Middle Cla$$. I found myself taking in his works for much longer than 5 minutes, and I wasn’t alone. They drew quite an audience.

Ashley Moran with work by King Saladeen.
Artwork by King Saladeen.
Staircase gallery at Corridor Contemporary.

Corridor Contemporary has three floors of galleries, and I found the small, winding staircase to be a perfect intimate spot to look slowly at skateboards adorned with art by Keith Haring from The Skateroom.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love to see the breadth of institutions that participate in Slow Art Day, from local galleries such as this to the larger museums. It proves that Slow Art is truly accessible to all. I am particularly delighted to have discovered Corridor Contemporary’s gallery in my own neighborhood, and can’t wait for their event in 2024.

– Ashley, with Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. – You can visit their social media here: Instagram | Facebook | X | Pinterest

Something Old, Something New at Angel Ambrose

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For their second Slow Art Day, Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio in Bloomington, Illinois invited visitors to consider the well known wedding rhyme “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue” as part of the city-wide Slow Art Day in this famous Route 66 town.

Angel invited visitors to her studio to look slowly at a selection of works that corresponded with the rhyme:

– Something Old: an “old” painting from Angel’s BFA show at Illinois State University

– Something New: a selection of new artworks by Angel

– Something Borrowed: an Ansel Adams photo on loan from a private collection

– Something Blue: a painting titled “Magnificent Blues,” on loan from the private collection of Wendy Knight Ives (pictured below).

Something Blue: “Magnificent Blues,” on loan from the collection of Wendy Knight Ives.
Something New: Artwork by Angel Ambrose

Angel also shared a slow looking activity on Facebook for online participants.

Give yourself 3-5 minutes of silence to focus on one piece of art. Think about these prompts as you view the selected art, (and answer them for yourself afterwards if you wish):

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?”

Angel reported that the event was a success, with many new visitors and lots of great conversations.

At Slow Art Day HQ we love how this and the other galleries in Bloomington have been pioneering citywide events. (Note: rumors are that a state-wide Slow Art Day is now being considered in Illinois!)

Best,

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

Third Slow Art Day at Glen Foerd in Philadelphia’s Citywide Event

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Executive Director Ross Mitchell at Glen Foerd in Philadelphia, PA reported that they had a very successful third Slow Art Day, featuring four works of art for an hour and a half of slow looking, followed by a group discussion.

“An Archive of Desire” by Jenifer Johnson (2020, Mixed Media, Porcelain. American)
“The Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist” by Girolamo da Santa Croce (1480-1556, Tempera on wood. Venetian)
“The Letter” by Hobson Pitman, (1899-1972, Oil on Canvas. American)

“Lady Russell” by Sir Peter Lely, (1617 – 1680, Oil on Panel. Dutch, Active in England)

The following prompts were printed out and provided to partcipants to consider during their slow looking:

  • Look not only at what is pictured, but how it is pictured.
  • What kind of colors has the artist used? Are they bright, muted, or somewhere in between?
  • Can you see how the color has been applied or is the color smooth and blended?
  • Is there a sense of deep, moderate, shallow, or indeterminate space? Is that space consistent throughout the picture?
  • Is space clear and well defined or atmospheric? What about how the picture was painted gives it that quality?
  • Is there the suggestion of a directional light source, of light coming from a one side or the other?
  • Can you see lines anywhere, whether painted lines or strong edges created by color-to-color areas? Where are lines used and how?
  • What other observations can you make?
  • How is the installation piece different from the paintings?
  • What is the unifying theme of the installation?

Glen Foerd participated in a Philadelphia-wide Slow Art Day along with these other museums:

The Barnes Foundation
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens
Corridor Contemporary

We at Slow Art Day HQ are excited to see how Philadelphia has joined in the citywide Slow Looking movement.

We look forward to what Glen Foerd comes up with for Slow Art Day 2024.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

Ready, Set, Slow… Art Weekend with the McLean

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For their first Slow Art Day – Slow Art Weekend, actually – the McLean County Museum of History, along with eight other downtown Bloomington, Illinois partners, held a Ready, Set, SLOW! event.

Hosted by Hannah Johnson, Education Program Coordinator at McLean, this Slow Art Day, organized with nine participating locations, was a true citywide event.

Including the McLean County Museum of History, the other participants were: Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio, Art Vortex Studio & Gallery, Eaton Studio Gallery, Inside-Out Accessible Art, Joann Goetzinger Studio Gallery, Main Gallery 404, The Hangar Art Co., and Threshold to Hope, Inc.

Photo credit: Hannah Johnson

Inspired by the Downtown’s First Friday theme, visitors were invited to engage in an evening of egg hunting and art viewing at the Museum. Two posters were created for the event, including prompts for the attendees to consider, and small cards for each image were handed out. Literal and figurative Easter eggs were hidden in reproduction art works from the Museum’s collection for a Slow Art and egg hunt inspired seek-and-find.

We love the playful nature of their event design.

Below you can find examples of the various poster formats they used. Educators and curators around the world should feel free to copy elements of what they have done with their event (and posters).

Photo credit: Hannah Johnson

Original works from the Museum’s collection complete with Slow Art appropriate prompts were on display the entire weekend, along with an annual installation of the Clothesline Project in partnership with YWCA McLean County Stepping Stones.

Emily Aminta Howard, Painting of Grapes and Apples, Oil on Canvas, c. 1890/1900
Rupert Kilgore, Abstract Portrait, Oil on Canvas, c. 1955/65
Takashi Ode, Mountain Scene, Watercolor, c. 1980/90

T-shirts decorated by local sexual assault survivors were also displayed as testimony to their survival and the chronic problem of violence against women in recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The McLean County Museum of History traces its roots back to 1892, and is a nationally-accredited award-winning museum with five permanent exhibit galleries and two rotating galleries.

Photo credit: Hannah Johnson

We look forward to what innovative approach McLean County Museum of History comes up with for next year’s Slow Art Day.

Best,

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

P.S. Find out more about the McLean County Museum of History on one of its social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, History Pin, or Flickr

Inside Out Accessible Art’s First Slow Art Day

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In what we hope is the beginning of a global trend, Bloomington, Illinois was home this year to the first planned citywide Slow Art Day event.

Nine galleries across this town, including the non-profit art collective Inside Out Accessible Art, Inc (IOAA), participated in what they called their Route 66 Slow Art Day initiative (Eaton, Illinois is situated on the historic Route 66 highway in the U.S.).

In addition to what IOAA and each of the other galleries did, the big win here of course is the way longtime host Pamala Eaton organized the first citywide Slow Art Day (see this earlier post and this local media coverage for more information).

The IOAA’s design for Slow Art Day was simple.

Visitors were invited to slowly look at the art of six local artists and then talk with each of the artists, who were invited to spend the day with slow lookers.

The six artists who participated were the following:

  • Peggy Dunlap (mixed media)

Photo credits: Shelley Schultz
Slow Art Day 2022 at IOAA. Photo credits: Shelley Schultz

At Slow Art Day HQ we look forward to publishing the reports from the other eight galleries, and to writing a wrap-up analysis of Bloomington’s citywide event, including what other cities might learn about doing something similar.

Of course, we also hope that the IOAA will host another Slow Art Day in 2023, and that next year’s event will be part of yet another citywide experience.

– Johanna, Jessica, Ashley and Phyl

Ps. The IOAA is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit that has a physical gallery space for artists, provides art classes and events and works cooperatively with others in the community to provide art experiences. Check them out online or Facebook.