For their first Slow Art Day, the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachussetts, invited visitors to look slowly at their collection “Framing the Domestic Sea: Photographs by Jeffery C. Becton.” Becton’s layered visual images feature the maritime world, and highlight contemporary environmental concerns.
The museum took a simple self-guided approach to their Slow Art Day, which is a great way for any museum or gallery to participate.
They designed a simple and attractive flyer with slow looking prompts (featured below – feel free to copy) and also set up a QR code that took visitors to a discussion about the exhibit by the artist and his wife.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
For their first Slow Art Day, the Bula Barua Gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida, hosted an event called “Rosé and Fine Art.”
Arriving guests were welcomed with a glass of wine or water and given a slow tour of The Bula Barua Gallery. Each artwork had a QR code, which revealed the artwork’s story and description.
Slow looking participant at the Bula Gallery, 2023
The Bula Gallery space
Bula Barua is an artist whose conscientious approach to painting fits in well as a slow making approach. In her own words:
“I take a lot of time to plan out my paintings before I pick up a brush. I first start with a sketch and then graduate to pigments and paints. It often takes hundreds of layers of color to bring my vision to life […] This entire process from start to finish can take weeks or months, depending on the size of my canvas and which materials I use.”
At Slow Art Day HQ we hope that more individual artists copy Bula Burua and host Slow Art Day events in their galleries and studios. It’s a great way to deepen their relationship with their followers, fans, and potential buyers.
We look forward to what Bula Burua comes up with for Slow Art Day 2024.
For their first Slow Art Day (and as the first registered Slow Art Day in New Delhi), Gallery Art.Motif opened up the gallery to slow looking enthusiasts.
Slow looking participants
Slow looking participants
The event began at 11:00 am. Visitors were first welcomed by Joan Lueth, Slow Art Day Host at the gallery, and Gallery Owner and Director, Mala Anneja. We at Slow Art Day HQ want to point out that Lueth first brought Slow Art Day to China when she lived in Shanghai, and now, since moving to New Delhi, she has continued her evangelism by working with Anneja to bring it to the Indian capital.
The design of their day was simple: Lueth and Anneja invited participants to choose an artwork they felt drawn to. All participants spent time looking slowly at the art, and then after their slow looking, everyone came together over lunch to talk about the experience.
The Gallery primarily showcases contemporary abstract and non-representational art from both upcoming and established artists, leaving plenty of room for interpretations and impressions to share with others during the Slow Art Day discussion component.
We thank Leuth for continuing to bring Slow Art Day out around the world and can’t wait to see what Art.Mofif Gallery come up with for Slow Art Day 2024, and hope that other galleries in India will also be inspired to join the slow looking movement.
For their first Slow Art Day, the 1 UV Gallery Studio in Saratoga, CA, invited visitors to a slow looking and discussion session with Larissa Dahroug, artist, Reiki Master teacher, and owner of 1 UV Gallery Studio.
View of 1 UV Gallery Studio, Slow Art Day 2023. Photo: Larissa Dahroug
Larissa promoted her Slow Art Day event by reaching out to local artists, government officials, and local museum employees in advance of the day.
Flier for Slow Art Day 2023 at 1 UV Gallery Studio
She had a small audience for the day, but it was a good start.
And in June of 2023, Larissa hosted a Saratoga Chamber of Commerce event at her Gallery where she introduced the concept of slow business, the Slow Movement, and in particular Slow Art Day to the attendees.
She is also in touch with the leader of the Bloomington, Illinois Slow Art Day, Pamala Eaton, who has developed a 15+ gallery event in that city – which Larissa hopes to replicate in Saratoga.
At Slow Art Day HQ, we are excited to see another citywide movement develop, this time in Saratoga.
We look forward to whatever Larissa and the city of Saratoga come up with for Slow Art Day 2024.
For their first Slow Art Day the Coral Gables Museum in Florida featured the reading of a Japanese fairy tale, and an exhibit with Japanese-style art by the artist known as The Talented Mr. Martin. The South Florida Charter Ensemble, a non-profit dedicated to improving lives through music, was a co-sponsor of this Slow Art Day, and took the lead in promoting and organizing the session (flyer below).
Flyer created for the Coral Gables Museum event, sponsored by SFCE Music
The session began with the Japanese Fairy Tale “Issun-bōshi”. The story revolves around a boy born to elderly parents, who had wanted a child for a long time. Despite Issun-bōshi only being one-inch tall, and never growing taller, he distinguishes himself through his courage and strong-will. In the story, he journeyes to far-off lands to find his place in the world, carrying a samurai sword made from a sewing needle, with a boat constructed from a rice bowl and rudder made from chopsticks. Below is a japanese drawing of Issun-bōshi, as he travels in his small boat.
Issun-bōshi going down the river in a bowl from “Buddha’s crystal and other fairy stories” (1908). Public Domain.
The day’s event then transitioned into a slow looking session focused on Japanese art.
Here are some photos they sent to us from the day, featuring samurai armor constructed by The Talented Mr. Martin. The armor connects to the theme of bravery in the context of Japanese culture, which the children also encountered in the story of Issun-bōshi.
We are glad to have the Coral Gables Museum and the South Florida Charter Ensemble join the slow looking movement. Reading a known fairytale that connects to the theme is a great idea to for a Slow Art Day event for children, and we hope that more museums might be inspired by this.
We look forward to what the Coral Gables Museum creates for Slow Art Day 2024.
