If it’s been a while since you last took a long look at a piece of art, the upcoming Richmond Slow Art Daywill give you a chance to ponder creative works. TheVirginia Museum of Fine Arts will host the happening aimed at art enthusiasts on Saturday, April 28.
Several years ago, my wife took a guided tour through the vast Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Afterward, she reported tongue-in-cheek: “They got us through in record time!”
Unfortunately, that’s a common experience for tour groups visiting museums as one stop in an action-packed day. The Memorial Art Gallery will try to make you forget that whizbang approach Saturday.
Organizers announce the largest Slow Art Day to date.
NEW YORK, NY, April 27, 2012 – Just one day before Slow Art Day 2012, organizers announce reaching a new milestone: 100 events are scheduled for April 28, 2012. The international, all-volunteer event celebrating art will take place in venues ranging from small to large and include MoMA in New York (the site of the first Slow Art Day in 2009), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the National Gallery in Canberra, Australia.
Since its founding in 2009, Slow Art Day has grown from a single event held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to hundreds of events over the years on every continent. “It’s great to see the groundswell of enthusiasm for this simple, but powerful, concept. The continuing growth in the global audience for art not only bodes well for Slow Art Day 2013, which is April 27 of next year, but more importantly, bodes well for our mission: to grow the audience for art everywhere around the world,” says founder Phil Terry, who is also CEO of the experience design firm Creative Good.
Slow Art Day was created to empower museum visitors to change their museum experience themselves and to help them learn how to look at and love art. Unlike the standard 8-second view, Slow Art Day participants are asked to spend an hour or more looking at just five pieces of art.
A complete list of venues and further information is available at www.slowartday.com.
About Slow Art Day
Slow Art Day is an all-volunteer, self-organized, annual global event that aims to transform the art-viewing experience. One day each year – April 28 in 2012 – people all over the world visit local museums and galleries to look at five pieces of art for an hour or more. After their individual slow viewing, participants meet together to talk about their experience. Volunteer hosts organize the local events using the tools and support available at the Slow Art Day website. Museums and galleries are invited to host Slow Art Day with no requirement to become official sponsors. In many cases, unaffiliated volunteer hosts choose the museum and the art and communicate directly with the pre-registered participants.
Contact Information:
Web: SlowArtDay.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/SlowArtDay
Twitter: @SlowArtDay
Tumblr: SlowArtDay.Tumblr.com
Contact: Kristine Gardner
Phone: 818-397-4002
Email: Kristine@slowartday.com
Mim Scalin is an artist who teaches workshops on creativity at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art studio school using Mail Art as the medium. An active member of the International Union of Mail Artists, which connects her with people throughout the world, this is her first time hosting Slow Art Day.
Slow Art Day: What does Slow Art Day mean to you and why did you get involved?
Mim: This is my first time as a host for Slow Art day. My son told me about it and I thought, “wow, like the Slow Food movement. This will be great fun.” Slowing down to participate in something seems like a good idea at a time when we all seem to be have a lot going on and rarely slow down.
Slow Art Day: What’s one artwork that has had a big impact on you?
Mim: I grew up in Chicago and was often taken to the Chicago Art Institute as a child. Among the many fabulous works of art, I saw Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, by Seurat, and I think that had a big influence on me. I was fascinated by how the artist could create something like this, and I wanted to make art, too.
Slow Art Day: Tell us about your Slow Art Day event.
Mim: I really enjoy the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and I go there lots since it’s near my home. The museum has undergone a major renovation recently and there are works on display now that I’d never seen before, or perhaps hadn’t paid attention to.
I’ve chosen 5 works from the American collection. I included 3 portraits, a landscape and a still-life. Most of the artists are not well-known, which is a benefit as the work will be “fresh.” I went many times over the past couple of months trying to limit choices. I had a friend join me and we had the best time looking at work slowly and determining the final selection.
After viewing the work, we’ll meet up at the museum cafe for lunch and share the experience of viewing art slowly.
Join Mim to peruse American Art for Slow Art Day in Richmond, Virginia, Saturday, April 28, 2012.
Our sponsor and partner, ikon TV, has created a 4 minute “virtual Slow Art Day” video that they are showing as part of their Slow Art Day programming in Germany and the Middle East.
Watch their “Virtual Slow Art Day” video here (note: there is *no* sound intentionally)
And here’s Ikono TV’s description of their video and their commitment to Slow Art Day:
“Let’s take a closer look – like all art, we can understand it better when we look more closely.” This love for detail and contemplative, decelerated experience of art is something we – ikono – stand for. Just like the Slow Art Day initiative, ikono invites people to experience art as a pure visual experience at home thanks to its two TV channels broadcasting now in 25 countries, spreading therefore the Slow Art Day mission to the largest possible audience – even outside of art institutions.
On the occasion of this year’s Slow Art Day on April 28th, ikono presents two themed programs: Miniature and Calligraphy in art. Both represent two classical forms or artistic practice in the Menasa region – the region ikono was launched in a few years ago. Both miniature and calligraphy require the viewer to slow down in order to discover details and to decipher.
The word “miniature” comes from the Latin word “miniare”, which means to color with red lead and was used for the capital letters. Miniatures were first used as decoration of hand-written books. We show a range of the traditional miniature paintings from the Ottoman, Persian, Asian and European heritage.
In addition, we present also the “conceptual idea of much-smaller-than-usual sizes” in painting, photography, sculpture, installation works and other forms of contemporary art.
A number of cultures throughout the world draw upon calligraphy as a prominent source of artistic practice from ancient times to most recent contemporary styles and movements. Calligraphy has also arguably become the most venerated form of Islamic art. Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish calligraphy is associated with abstract arabesque motives on the walls and ceilings of mosques as well as on the page. Contemporary artists in the Islamic world draw on the heritage of calligraphy to use calligraphic inscriptions or abstractions in their work. The calligraphy special presents traditional and contemporary works of different artistic backgrounds.
ikonoTV is a new platform proposing an alternative to museums and galleries – as it goes beyond the limitations of space and time frames. In Berlin, a team consisting of artists, art historians, filmmakers, art critics and curators from over a dozen different nationalities, is working together to find new ways of showcasing visual arts.
In late 2010, ikono launched its art channel ikonoMenasa: the first TV channel solely devoted to art. ikonoMenasa runs 24 hours every day with no commercial breaks, no added sound or narrative in 24 countries throughout the Menasa region – the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
In December 2011, ikonoTV was launched in Germany as a second channel – bringing this unique, contemplative way of experiencing art to the German public.
For more information, please visit us at www.ikono.org
Carol Rossi, running one of two Slow Art Day 2012 events at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is a museum-goer, yoga practitioner and teacher, observer of people, and meditator. In her professional life, she leads the research team at Edmunds, helping people find and get good deals on their car purchases. Read on to find out Carol’s approach for an inspiring yet meditative Slow Art Day this year.
Slow Art Day: Why are you hosting Slow Art Day? What drew you to it?
Carol: I’ve hosted Slow Art for the past three years—two previously at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and this year at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). I love everything about Slow Art—looking at art in a meditative way appeals to me. Hosting gives me a chance to introduce people who otherwise wouldn’t “meditate” to a tangible method of slowing down, and I get to meet and spend time with people who also appreciate this approach.
Slow Art Day: What’s one artwork that has had a big impact on you?
Carol: Modigliani’s “Portrait of the Artist’s Wife: Jeanne Hebuterne” which is at the Norton Simon Museum. She’s just beautiful. It kind of became a joke among the participants at the last two Slow Art Day events because I kept including her in the collection, so they started doing a psychological evaluation on me (“why do you love that piece so much?”). I have no idea why it’s my favorite piece, but I’ve got a print of her in my office and a postcard on my fridge, so she’s with me in low resolution throughout the day.
Slow Art Day: Tell us about your Slow Art Day event.
Carol: While I tend to gravitate towards modern (20th century) and contemporary art and I also love “church” art, for Slow Art Day this year, I’m sticking with more secular pieces. We’ll be viewing a Sam Francis piece called “Toward Disappearance,” a Rothko, a Matisse drawing, a Picasso classic, and a Modigliani because I can never resist Modigliani! LACMA is the largest museum in the Western United States. In the past few years they’ve opened two large new galleries, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and the Resnick Pavillion, so there is even more viewing space than before. We’ll be looking at art for about an hour, then we’ll head over to a local restaurant to have lunch and discuss.
Join Carol for Slow Art Day at LACMA April 28, 2012, to “meditate” on inspiring art.
Look. Slowly.
Berkeley Museum of Art is one of 90+ venues for Slow Art Day 2012- see more info
Image source: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
Maria Wegenke is an education specialist and the the coordinator for the first-ever Slow Art Day at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAK) in Krakow, Poland. Open since February 2010, MOCAK’s exhibits focus on contemporary international art, and one of its most important objectives is to expose patrons to contemporary art in order to reduce prejudice.
Slow Art Day: Why are you hosting Slow Art Day?
Maria: This is our first time hosting Slow Art Day, and we’re doing so because it fits perfectly into our strategy to open Polish society to contemporary art. We want to create a new art audience.
Slow Art Day: Have you selected your artwork for Slow Art Day yet?
Maria: We’re presenting works from Maria Jarema, Agnieszka Piksa, Koji Kamoji, Stanisław Dróżdż and Jerzy Bereś. Four of these works belong to our permanent collection and one is part of our “Urban legends” temporary exhibit. They include sculpture, drawing, and graphic installations.
Slow Art Day: What is your favorite piece of art – or what’s one artwork that has had a great effect on you?
Maria: While I don’t have favorite piece of art, I like Marlene Dumas, Georges Seurat, Józef Gielniak, and Stefan Żechowski (illustrations to “Motory” by Emil Zegadłowicz).
Slow Art Day: Tell us more about your first-ever Slow Art Day event.
Maria: Slow Art Day at MOCAK starts at 12. In the first part, we invite you to see the chosen artwork. Later on we invite you to the MOCAK Café to have a coffee and chat about the exhibition, museum or whatever you find interesting. See you at MOCAK!
Join Krakow’s first Slow Art Day with Maria this April 28, 2012!
Look. Slowly.
The Allentown Art Museum is now participating in Slow Art Day 2012- see more info
Image Source:http://www.allentownartmuseum.org
Slow Art Day 2012 Announces Key Milestone
Organizers announce more than 75 events are scheduled for April 28, 2012.
NEW YORK, NY, April 3, 2012 – Slow Art Day, the international grassroots arts movement, announced that Slow Art Day events would take place in at least 75 venues (museums, galleries and sculpture gardens) around the world April 28, 2012. Venues range from small to large and include MoMA in New York (the site of the first Slow Art Day in 2009), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the National Gallery in Canberra, Australia. Organizers expect additional venues to join leading up to April 28, 2012.
Since its founding in 2009, Slow Art Day has grown from a single event held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City hundreds of events over the years on every continent. “Slow Art Day allows museum goers to redesign the experience of looking at art – making it less intimidating and much more welcoming,” says founder Phil Terry, who is also CEO of the experience design firm Creative Good.
Slow Art Day was created to empower museum visitors to change their museum experience themselves and help them learn how to look at and love art. Unlike the standard 8-second view, Slow Art Day participants are asked to spend an hour or more looking at just five pieces of art.
A complete list of venues and further information is available at www.slowartday.com.
About Slow Art Day
Slow Art Day is an all-volunteer, self-organized, annual global event that aims to transform the art-viewing experience. One day each year – April 28 in 2012 – people all over the world visit local museums and galleries to look at five pieces of art for an hour or more. After their individual slow viewing, participants meet together to talk about their experience. Volunteer hosts organize the local events using the tools and support available at the Slow Art Day website. Museums and galleries are invited to host Slow Art Day with no requirement to become official sponsors. In many cases, unaffiliated volunteer hosts choose the museum and the art and communicate directly with the pre-registered participants.
Contact Information:
Web: SlowArtDay.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/SlowArtDay
Twitter: @SlowArtDay
Tumblr: SlowArtDay.Tumblr.com
Contact: Kristine Gardner
Phone: 818-397-4002
Email: Kristine@slowartday.com