Miniature Art Captivates at the Gardiner Museum

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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.

Karine Giboulo: Housewarming, Installation view, 2022, Gardiner Museum, Toronto.

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).

Worksheet-Karine-Giboulo-Slow-Art-Day-2023Download
Karine Giboulo: Housewarming, Installation view, 2022, Gardiner Museum, Toronto.
Karine Giboulo: Housewarming, Installation view, 2022, Gardiner Museum, Toronto.
Karine Giboulo: Housewarming, Installation view, 2022, Gardiner Museum, Toronto.
Karine Giboulo: Housewarming, Installation view, 2022, Gardiner Museum, Toronto.

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.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl.

PS. Stay updated with events at the Gardiner Museum on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Korea’s First Slow Art Day at Choi Sunu House 

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Ran Hee, the manager of the Choi Sunu House Memorial Museum in Seoul, Korea, hosted their (and Korea’s) first Slow Art Day on April 15 with the theme “Neurim & Nurim (느림 그리고 누림)”, which translates to “Slow and Enjoy”.

The event was jointly organized by the National Trust Cultural Heritage Foundation and Ewha Womans University Graduate School of Education participants majoring in art education, Kim Han-sol, Han Yu-jin, and Heo Bona.

Choi Sunu (1916~1984) was an eminent art historian and museum professional who served as the fourth director of the National Museum of Korea until his death. He devoted his life to define and propagate the beauty of Korean art and architecture through exhibitions and writings. The Choi Sunu House, where he lived from 1976 to 1984, is an expression of his aesthetics of simplicity and elegance, and has been open to the public since 2004.

Ran Hee and team created a three-part event:

First, curator Song Ji-young gave participants an introduction to Choi Sunu and his house.

Next, Bona Heo, Ewha Womans University graduate student, handed out question cards with prompts for slow looking (and talked about the slow looking movement).

Last, Professor Han Yu-jin hosted a video viewing session and discussion with attendees (scroll down to see photos, as well as audio and video excerpts).

Visitors listening to the introduction of the Slow Art Day event.
Bona Heo, Ewha Womans University graduate student, introducing the event.
Participant contemplating the question cards.
Flyer for the event.

The hosts prepared a few memorable excerpts from Choi Sunu’s works alongside a video. Participants were also encouraged to write a short note on postcards about their experience.

Slow Art Day experience cards.

Below are a few links to audio and text excerpts of Choi’s works (in Korean): 

Choi Sunu, “Fruits More Beautiful than Flowers”
Choi Sunu, “The Empty Branch of Mid-Winter” 
Choi Sunu, “Light Green Radish” 

We at HQ are glad to welcome the first Korean museum to the slow art movement, and look forward to seeing what the Choi Sunu House designs for Slow Art Day 2024.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. You can also follow Choi Sunu House on Instagram.

Sint-Pauluskerk Calls For More Churches to Join Slow Art Day

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Sint-Pauluskerk in Antwerp, Belgium, called on more churches to join the slow looking movement (more about that in a moment), while, at the same time, hosting its sixth Slow Art Day this year.

For their 2023 Slow Art Day, they invited visitors to take a closer look at two statues, one in marble and one in oak, of Rosa van Lima (the first Latin American canonized saint).

Side view of Rosa of Lima in marble (Artus Quellinus, the younger, ca. 1670). Sint-Pauluskerk. Used with permission.
Front view of Rosa of Lima in marble (Artus Quellinus, the younger, ca. 1670). Sint-Pauluskerk. Used with permission.
View of Rosa of Lima in oak. (Willem Kerricx I, ca. 1680). Sint-Pauluskerk. Used with permission.

The slow looking sessions started with the marble statue, which depicts Rosa Lima holding Jesus as a child. Participants were encouraged to sit in chairs in front of the statue and look slowly for 10 minutes. They were provided the following optional, thought-provoking prompts to aid in the slow-looking, and were then encouraged to ask the guides about the person Rosa van Lima:

– What do you think the subject is?

– Why is the statue in this place?

– What did the artist want to say?

Next, the session moved to the statue in oak on the other side of the church, where visitors were invited to look slowly and discuss their impressions. The oak statue is part of a monumental depiction of the “Last Judgment: the ultimate baroque exhortation not to forget any sin during confession,” in the words of Armand Storck, scriptor for the church.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love the team at Sint-Pauluskerk. Not only do they often send us the details in advance of their event, but, more importantly, they design events that take full advantage of the church environment to encourage contemplation and reflection.

To that point, we are also excited because, as mentioned, Storck and his team are taking a lead role in challenging more churches to join the Slow Art Day movement. In fact, Storck points out that while hundreds of museums participate in Slow Art Day, only three churches registered this year yet “what environment lends itself better to contemplative art experience than a church? “

We agree, and hope that more churches answer Storck’s question by joining our movement.

And we certainly look forward to what storck and team design for Sint-Pauluskerk’s seventh Slow Art Day in 2024.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

Slow Art Day 2023 Is Over – Now Our Work Begins

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It’s a wrap!

Slow Art Day 2023 is now officially over.

Congratulations.

Our community came together and produced another continent-spanning event – China, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, England, Ireland, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, U.S., Canada, and *many* other countries.

In fact, Slow Art Day 2023 featured about 200 total events (actually, more than that when you count those that didn’t register with us).

With the work of the museums and galleries done for this year, the work begins for the volunteer Slow Art Day HQ Team. We will spend the rest of 2023 compiling, editing, and publishing reports about each of these individual events.

We have two goals with these reports: 1) help all of you learn from each other; 2) build the bonds of this global community of educators, curators, gallerists.

Our first step is reaching out to each host and asking them to provide us with details, photos, and artifacts from their 2023 Slow Art Day events.

Then when we get their information, we take these five steps:

1. Write-up individual reports
Our volunteer team will spend about five hours working on each individual museum/gallery report – editing and crafting a good write-up of what every individual museum and gallery did and calling out what others might learn from their design.

2. Email your report out to our global community
When each individual report is done, we email it out to the thousands of educators, curators, artists and others on our email list.

3. SlowArtDay.com
We then post it to our website for the world to see.

4. Facebook, Instagram
And we also post each report to our social media channels.

5. Annual Report
Finally, we add each individual report to our Annual Report, which has become the Bible of the slow looking movement (note: the full Annual Report for 2023 will be published in February of 2024).

Thank you for another great Slow Art Day – and here’s to spending the rest of 2023 learning what each other did.

Best,

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

P.S. Find all our previous Annual Reports in the Host Tools section of the website.

Slow Art Day 2023 – Checklist and Podcast

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We are excited that the 14th Slow Art Day is mere hours away.

*187* museums and galleries all over the world on every continent (except Antarctica) are officially participating this year. And many *more* are running events that we don’t know about.

— And this just in: lovely podcast interview by Claire Bown with Slow Art Day founder Phyl Terry —

A big heartfelt thanks to all the educators, curators, gallerists, and others who are making Slow Art Day happen.

You know the impact it can have on world to help more people learn to slow down and immerse themselves in art.

You are leading an important movement – one that brings many benefits including spreading the ancient simple joy of connecting deeply with art.

We applaud you.

And here’s a quick checklist for tomorrow.

Checklist (for Hosts)

1. Fun
Of course – have fun. Enjoy the day and all the hard work you’ve put into your unique Slow Art Day event. We can’t wait to learn about the design of your day and write it up in our Annual Report so others can take inspiration from you.

2. Photos
Take photos and tag #SlowArtDay2023 on Insta and Facebook (and send them to us separately for your report).

3. Artifacts
Save any fliers, prompts, instructions, brochures (and send them to us so we can include them in our write-up of your event – so others can benefit from your designs)

Have a GOOD and Slow Art Day 2023.

Best,

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

P.S. If you want to *attend* a Slow Art Day, then:

1. Check the 2023 Venue list
187 museums and galleries have officially registered with us. See if one is near you. And go slow down and look. It will change your life.

2. Or, go to *any* museum, gallery, sculpture park
Run your own slow looking session, using our – playfully named – “slow looking algorithm.”

Philadephia’s Citywide Slow Art Day 2023

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Slow Art Day is but *2* days away and more than 185 museums have registered their events, including five in Philadelphia, making that city part of a growing number of cities hosting 5, 10 or more events.

[Remember to register your Slow Art Day with us so we can write-up a report about your work and feature you in our next Annual Report, which has become the Bible of the slow looking movement.]

Philadelphia Inquirer journalist Michelle Myers wrote a wonderful article about the citywide Slow Art Day – Everything You Need to Know About Slow Art Day in Philadelphia.

For the educators and curators reading our blog, here’s a quick summary of the design of the five events.

1. The Barnes Foundation
With a lot of support from Bill Perthes, the foundation’s Bernard C. Watson director of adult education, The Barnes Foundation has participated in Slow Art Day since 2017. This year visitors will have an hour to observe four works of art, including pieces by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Honoré Daumier, and Pablo Picasso. Participants will then gather for a 30-minute conversation with Michael Williamson, a member of the Barnes faculty and former Germantown Friends School art history teacher.

2. Corridor Contemporary
Corridor Contemporary will showcase their exhibition, “Printed Perspectives,” which features printmaking techniques such as silk screening and lithography. Visitors can visit the gallery for free between 6 and 9 pm and observe each piece.

3. Glen Foerd
Glen Foerd, primarily known as a historic site and arboretum, will provide participants with a chance to observe four works of art: a portrait by Sir Peter Lely, Poppies in Vase by Hobson Pittman, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist by Girolamo da Santacroce, and An Archive of Desire by Jennifer Johnson. Participants will then gather for a conversation with executive director Ross Mitchell, discussing aesthetics and themes of each artwork.

4. Philadelphia Magic Gardens
This year, the Magic Gardens will observe four pre-selected, untitled terracotta sculptures by the Garcia family of Oaxaca. The gardens anticipate 15 to 20 participants, and the conversation will be guided by educator Samantha Eusebio, focusing on folk art and the importance of passing down family traditions.

5. Philadelphia Museum of Art
The museum’s Slow Art Day event is a guided walk around the Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden, led by mindfulness instructor Grady Bates. Visitors will observe Bronze Bowl with Lace by Ursula von Rydingsvard and other works of art.

Wherever you are in the world – Philadephia, Prague (Czech Republic), Pamplona (Spain), Pecs (Hungary), Parkes (Australia), or Provo, UT (U.S.), we hope you have a GOOD and Slow Art Day 2023. 

Best,

Phyl and the volunteer Slow Art Day team

P.S. If you need the Slow Art Day logo for use in your print or digital efforts, or any of the tools and tips from our Annual Reports, then go to the host tools section of our Slow Art Day website.