Tag Archives: Mason City

Mason City, IL, Hosts City-Wide Slow Art Day

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For their first city-wide Slow Art Day, the town of Mason City, Illinois lined up three venues to host artwork events for Slow Art Day: the public library, Reimagine Mason City Foundation, and the Arlee Theater. 

All three are local nonprofits who are actively involved in youth services and the arts. Even though Mason City is not large enough to need a stop light (with a population of 2500), they still make sure to celebrate local artists. This year’s featured works included pieces from local artists who have passed on, as well as works from four other Central Illinois artists with various ties to Mason City. Most of the entries were paintings, with one sculpture.

This year’s local artworks were: 

  • Unknown titled piece by Andrea Maxson
  • “Colorful Flowers” by the late Helen Kim
  • Two untitled pieces by Anastasia Neumann
  • “Protection” and “Old Warrior” by Rick Kehl
  • Unknown titled piece by the late Mary Price
  • Unknown titled piece by the late Mary K. Mangold
  • “Arcturian Landscape Study in Aluminum” by Paige Price 
Untitled work by Anastasia Neumann
Untitled work by Anastasia Neumann
Untitled work by Andrea Maxson
“Colorful Flowers” by Helen Kim
Untitled work by Mary K. Mangold
Untitled work by Mary Price
“Arcturian Landscape Study in Aluminum” by Paige Price
“Old Warrior” by Rick Kehl
“Protection” by Rick Kehl

On Slow Art Day, the artworks were divided across the three selected locations, and tips for looking at art slowly were provided at each venue.

  • The public library showed their pieces in a special exhibit.
  • The Reimagine Mason City Foundation hosted a pop-up coffee shop where their works were displayed. 
  • And lastly, the Arlee Theater projected digital versions of all of the works onto the big screen prior to the evening’s show (we have seen several theaters participate over the years, and love this type of venue for slow looking!).

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love to see citywide events – and especially appreciate smaller towns who come together to celebrate the day. We also hope to see more movie theaters join the Slow Art Day movement.

We look forward to seeing what Mason City comes up with for Slow Art Day in 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl


P.S. Slow Art Day 2025 is coming up on April 5. If you have not done so, please register your museum, gallery, church, sculpture park or movie theater here: https://www.slowartday.com/be-a-host/

Art Deco Movie Theater Shows a New Kind of Slow Art Day

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Arlee Theater in Mason City, Illinois, a locally-owned and operated art deco movie theater, which relies on volunteers to stay open, hosted its first Slow Art Day (and the first one we know of in a movie theater – wow!) with great success.

Exterior of the Arlee Theater in Mason City. The photo is from the Arlee website.

Ahead of the event, local residents were invited to submit an artwork to be considered for a slow looking session to be held on the big screen.

Arlee’s volunteer crew selected five artworks (out of the overall twenty that were submitted) to be shown for five minutes each before Saturday night’s movie screening. These replaced the normal pre-show advertisements, and were accompanied by brief contextual information about Slow Art Day to help orient people arriving at different times. You can view the five works below.

Following the event, a timed video of the artworks was uploaded to the Arlee website and Facebook page so people could participate at home as well.

Marcia Maxson Schwartz, who is an Arlee board member and volunteer, reported that they received a lot of positive feedback, including from visitors who rarely go to museums or galleries. In fact, by bringing art into the movie theater, Arlee is showing all of us how to bring art into the lives of *many* more people.

Further, Schwartz and her volunteer team hope to use this year’s success to create a citywide Slow Art Day in Mason next year.

“While we only had a couple of days to get things together, our team considers it a success and is looking forward to next year – we’ve even started the ball rolling with a store owner and the town’s librarian to coordinate events across this little town next year.”

Marcia Maxaon Schwartz

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love the pioneering efforts of the Arlee Theater and hope they start a movement of movie theaters around the world showing art slowly.

We also love the mix of kinds of institutions that are now participating in Slow Art Day – major national museums, regional and university museums, galleries, outdoor sculpture parks, avant garde art spaces, and local movie theaters in small towns. Hurray!

Art needs to be slowly seen *everywhere* and we thank the volunteers at Arlee for innovating a new way to reach more people.

We eagerly anticipate what Arlee and the town of Mason, which may host a citywide Slow Art Day in 2024, come up with for next year.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl