Tag Archives: female artists

Accessible Slow Art Day Hosted by the Art Gallery at Evergreen

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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.

SLOW_ART_DAY_PROMPTSDownload

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.

Slow Yoga and Photography at MOMus Thessaloniki

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For their sixth consecutive Slow Art Day, MOMus-Museum of Photography in Thessaloniki, Greece, hosted yoga and slow looking with a focus on the photography of the Greek photographer Elli Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari (1899 – 1998), also known as “Nelly,” or by her studio stamp name “Nelly’s.”

Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari is best known for her photos of Greece between the First and Second World Wars, which shaped the Western imagination of that country. After the outbreak of World War II, she lived in the US where she continued her photography before eventually returning to Greece.

Elly Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari (Nelly’s) The Old town of Chania, Crete, 1928
© Benaki Museum Photographic Archives
Elly Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari (Nelly’s) From the series “Easter Parade,” New York, April 1956
© Benaki Museum / Photographic Archives
Elly Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari (Nelly’s). From the series “Constructions and Buildings in New York,” April 1956 © Benaki Museum / Photographic Archives

For the Slow Art Day event, photographer and certified yoga teacher, Ioanna Fotiadou, first led participants in a short yoga practice aimed at all levels of experience. She guided them to move slowly and remain in the yoga positions while focusing on the present moment.

Slow Art Day Yoga session at MOMus

This was followed by a slow viewing of selected works from the exhibition, which participants observed for 10 minutes each. At the end of the session, they discussed their experience with the museum curators while drinking coffee and enjoying views of the sea.

Participants looking slowly at photography in the exhibition.
Group discussion for Slow Art Day.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love that yoga, mediation, and mindfulness continue to be a part of our movement – such as the one held at the Swedish National Museum in 2023 or in Ireland in 2024 at West Cork Arts Center.

We also love the passionate participation of MOMus Thessaloniki in Slow Art Day and look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Phyl, Jessica Jane

P.S. Stay up to day with events at MOMus Thessaloniki via Facebook and Instagram.

Cliffe Castle Museum hosts 5th Slow Art Day

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For their 5th Slow Art Day, Cliffe Castle Museum (part of Bradford Museums and Galleries), in Bradford, England, invited visitors to look slowly at 5 artworks:

  • Butterfield family stained glass window
  • A painting of Napoleon III
  • Evolution tapestry
  • Cliffe Castle Ballroom by Marie-Louise Roosevelt Pierrepont (no image was provided, but you can view similar works by the same artist).
  • Mistle Thrush by Liza Dracup

Image credit: Visit Bradford

Butterfield family stained glass window
Image credit: Bradford Museums and Galleries

Napoleon III
Image credit: Bradford Museums and Galleries

Castle curators guided Slow Art Day participants on a tour to see the selected works of art and castle features. Others who wanted to look on their own were provided with a map showcasing the location of each of the selected objects, as well as a list of prompts (see the map and prompts below). Lowri Jones, Curator of Collections at Bradford Museums, reported that participants left great feedback about the format.

Love this map. How fun to see our turtle spread across the museum.

We also love the inclusion of architecture, which, of course, makes sense with a castle. Having said that, we encourage other institutions to see if there is a way to incorporate parts of their building, architecture or landscape into their Slow Art Day events.

We look forward to whatever Cliffe Castle Museum and Bradford Museums and Galleries come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with events at Bradford Museums and Galleries via their Facebook, Instagram and X profiles.

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

“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.

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.

First Turkish Slow Art Day at Ayzeradant Art Gallery

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Ayzeradant Gallery in the city of Izmir hosted Slow Art Day in April of 2023 bringing the slow art movement to Turkey for the first time.

Performance artist and medical doctor Pınar Derin Gençer, based in Istanbul and Stockholm, was invited to perform her work “Watching the Waves”.

Slow Art Day poster for the event. Shared to Instagram.

Derin works mainly on performance art, visual arts, installation, writing and objects. According to Performance Art Weekly, her art “studies the relationship between the physical, psychological, historical field of the life, of the nature, of the city and the human.”

Derin is the founder/creative director of Istanbul Performance Art, Stockholm Performance Art and 24 Hours Art, and chief curator of Open Performance Space.

In “Watching the Waves”, the viewer experiences ways of thinking about the times between self and world, sensitive knowledge, and the space between object and world. 

After the performance, the art director of the gallery, Nihat Özdal, hosted a conversation with the gallery visitors on “Slow Art”, in which participants also got the opportunity to reflect together on the performance.

Below are photos showing some of the stages in the performance by Pınar Derin Gençer. Although seemingly simple, the process of actively following the artist drawing lines on the wall becomes an immersive experience.

Stage in the performance “Watching the Waves” by Pınar Derin Gençer for Slow Art Day 2023
Stage in the performance “Watching the Waves” by Pınar Derin Gençer for Slow Art Day 2023
Stage in the performance “Watching the Waves” by Pınar Derin Gençer for Slow Art Day 2023

The name of the gallery, “Ayzeradant”, comes from the “temple of wisdom” sign that the Armenian poet Tıngır hung at the entrance of his house in Buca in the 1800s. Tıngır was found dead in the grave he dug himself in 1881.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we are excited to see Slow Art Day gaining a foothold in Turkey. We look forward to future events from Ayzeradant Gallery, and hope that they will host a Slow Art Day also in 2024.

-Johanna, Jessica Jane, Phyl and Ashley

PS. Stay updated with events at Ayzeradant Gallery via their Instagram page.

Beauty from Brokenness: Slow Art Day in Ljubljana, Slovenia

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For their third Slow Art Day, Galleria l’arte di seta in Ljubljana, Slovenia, partnered with Elnovaspace Education Center to host three events in the period between April 13th – 18th, 2023 on the theme ‘Beauty from Brokenness.’

Artwork by artist Ruth Korthof
Slow Art Day participant, 2023, viewing artwork by artist Ruth Korthof
Slow Art Day participants, 2023, viewing artwork by artist Ruth Korthof

All events took place at the premises of Elnovaspace, Cigaletova 5, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

There were 3 main events:

  • April 13th opening
  • April 14 and 15 slow art looking (in person, individual guests)
  • April 18 conversation with the artist


Each event started with slow looking for 10 -15 minutes. They followed that by asking each participant to share their thoughts and reflections, and then concluded by talking about the ‘beauty of brokenness.’

Gallery founder, Lidija Drobež, said that “the common experience of looking slowly and the intriguing topic of beauty from brokenness jointly led to honest, meaningful and open discussion.”

Artist Ruth Korthof had no active role during slow art looking, but on April 18th she was actively involved as a participant. Later she said the following about the event:

We really like the way Galleria l’arte di seta approached this Slow Art Day and their three-day design with a focus on a single artist could be a good model for how other galleries might want to approach designing their own slow looking events.

Here at Slow Art Day HQ we were ourselves quite taken by the theme, and find Ruth Korthof’s art captivating. Porcelain is fragile, breakable, and beautiful, just like much of our world (and, of course, note the proximity of the Ukraine War and the threats Latvia is itself experiencing).

We look forward to whatever Galleria l’arte di seta and Elnovaspace come up with for their next Slow Art Day.

-Johanna, Phyl, Ashley, and Jessica Jane

PS. Stay up to date with Ruth Korthof and Galleria l’arte di seta through their Instagram.

6th Slow Art Day at The White Room Gallery in Worcester, MA

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Payal Thiffault and Michelle May, founders of Juniper Rag magazine and Slow Art Day pioneers going back to the founding, held their 2023 Slow Art Day at The White Room Gallery in Worcester, MA. They invited both the public and the following New England-based artists whose work was on exhibition at the gallery:

  • Curtis Speer, Newport, RI
  • Scott Boilard, Worcester, MA
  • Howard Johnson, Jr., Worcester, MA
  • John Pagano, Paxton, MA
  • Sue Swinand, Worcester, MA
  • Tara Sellios, Boston, MA

Slow Art Day 2023 Poster by The White Room, Presented by Juniper Rag

Participants arrived for the event and began slowly looking at the artwork, with questions and discussions organically began as everyone looked at the artwork. Having the artists present created a lot of additional excitement.

John Pagano’s artwork featured at The White Room Slow Art Day 2023


Viewing began with a look at Scott Boilard’s surrealist painting, ‘Nightmares of Time’, which incorporates figurative imagery and appears to illustrate tension, passion and an emotional journey that the viewer can piece together in many different ways. Attendees were intrigued by the subject matter, the techniques used and the feeling of motion in the piece. Uniquely, the artist had the opportunity to talk about his concept in painting the work and how it related to self-expression and the feelings that come from societal pressure. Discussing his art so intimately was a great kick-off to the day.

Visitors also viewed work by Howard B. Johnson, Jr. who creates landscapes of symbolic references and double entendres that keep the viewer’s eye moving all over the art. Humor, visual taunts and esoterica left many viewers with endless questions.

They then moved on to fine art photographs by Tara Sellios and Curtis Speer and ended the viewing with paintings by Susan Swinand and John Pagano.

Viewers reported leaving with in-depth insights and reflections on all of the work. The hosts said that they found it rewarding to see the different perspectives, from art educators, conservators, engineers and doctors.

Food served at the event (slow looking pairs well with snacks)
Scott Boilard’s painting ‘Nightmares of Time’, featured at The White Room Slow Art Day 2023
Slow Art Day participants at The White Room. 2023.
Slow Art Day participants at The White Room. 2023. Here viewing Scott Boilards painting.
Slow Art Day participants at The White Room. 2023.

We love the way Michelle May and Payal Thiffault continue to lead the Slow Art Day movement – and continue to keep their own minds open to constant and ongoing learning. We look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2024!

Best,

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

Slow Art Day Comes to the ‘Heart of the World’

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Slow Art Day has come to the Sierra Nevada Santa Marta in Colombia, known as the ‘Heart of the World’ to the indigenous communities who inhabit the coastal mountains and valleys.

Photographer Natasha Johl organized this first Slow Art Day at Sonidoselva, a cultural center in Minca. After giving a short speech describing the simple methodology of slow looking, Johl invited participants to look slowly at her photography exhibition Dream Weaver, which presents a series of photographs taken over nine years that represent the ordinary, simple, and often overlooked moments of life.

In a world where images shout at the viewer, I believe there is a dignity in silence. 

Natasha Johl
Generous Dreamer Unframed Giclee. Natasha Johl.
As we Watch Unframed Giclee Print. Natasha Johl.

The main subject of her photos are the indigenous group of the Arhuacos, which descend from the Tairona, an ancient South American civilization that now reside in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The Arhuaco have developed an understanding of the earth, which gives equal measure to the human mind and spirit and the forces of nature.  

Natasha Johl (on the left) and members of the Arhuacos (on the right).
Slow Art Day visitors engaging in the exhibition (we love the light in these photos).

We at Slow Art Day HQ love that slow looking at art has made it to the ‘heart of the world’ and we look forward to seeing what Johl and her colleagues put together for Slow Art Day 2024.

– Jessica, Ashley, Johanna, and Phyl