Tag Archives: mindfulness

Gateway to Himalayan Art Workshop at Lehigh University Art Galleries

Posted on by

For their fourth Slow Art Day the Lehigh University Art Galleries in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, extended gallery hours and presented a free community workshop in partnership with Shanthi Project, that connected with works on display in the Gateway to Himalayan Art Exhibition

Image: Lobsang Drubjam Tsering. Medicine Buddha Palace (Copy of first painting from the set of the Tibetan Medical Paintings from Mentsikhang Lhasa) Rebgong county, Qinghai Province, China; 2012-2013 Pigments on cloth. Rubin Museum of Art. SC2013.6
Slow looking workshop in Lehigh University Galleries with Dr. Kristin Baxter, 2023.

On April 15, participants were first led by teaching artist, Dr. Kristin Baxter in meditation and grounding exercises. They then spent some time looking slowly at a thangka painting of the Medicine Buddha on display as part of the exhibition Gateway to Himalayan Art (pictured above). Following their experience in the gallery, everyone was invited to create their own mindfulness journal to take home. 

LUAG also posted short videos on social media to encourage individuals to slow down and take time to view individual works of art, as well as on LUAG@Home – an online listing of resources on their website. 

At Slow Art Day HQ we love that Lehigh partnered with the Shanthi Project to bring meditative practices to their event. Meditation and slow looking are closely intwined as demonstrated by what the Rubin Museum of Art, the Phoenix Museum of Art and others have done since the beginning of our movement.

We look forward to whatever Lehigh University Art Galleries come up with for Slow Art Day 2024.

-Johanna, Ashley, Phyl, and Jessica Jane

Tea, Biscuits, and Year-Round Slow Looking

Posted on by

This year Galleri Pictor and Munka folkhogskola (a Swedish folk high school and adult education center) hosted Slow Art events several times during the year: once in April for Slow Art Day, and three times during the summer for art students taking summer courses at the center. The slow looking sessions all took place at Galleri Pictor and each session focused on a single artwork – Clara Lundgren’s “Det var här” (“It was here”).

Clara Lundgren (undated). “Det var här” (It was here). Acrylic on canvas. 69×82 cm. This artwork was used for the slow looking sessions at Galleri Pictor.

Arriving participants were welcomed and given a worksheet (in Swedish) containing instructions for eye palming along with slow looking prompts.

These instructions have been translated into English below:

— Materials: Artwork, Worksheets and Timer —

1) Eye Palming is a technique to relax the muscles around the eyes. Warm your hands by rubbing them together for a few seconds. Close your eyes and press your palms lightly against your cheeks, then cup your fingers over your eyes and eyebrows. Breathe slowly and deeply for three minutes.

2) Open your eyes slowly and look at the artwork with the same focus you had on your breathing.
– What do you notice?
– What colors, compositions, shapes and materials do you see?
– Does the artwork remind you of an event in your life?
– Do you think others notice the same thing as you?
If your mind wanders, try to focus again on the image. Look at the artwork for 10 minutes.

3) Relax again. Take a few deep breaths and notice any further thoughts you have about the artwork.

4) Write down reflections on the worksheet. Do this for 10 minutes.

5) Finally, we reflect together on our experiences of the image and how it felt to do the activity.


During the slow looking session Charlotte Fällman Gleissner, art expert and teacher at Munka Folkhögskola, kept track of the time transitions using a timer.

For the closing group reflection, Galleri Pictor repeated their successful concept from last year of sharing tea and biscuits together while participants discussed their slow looking session. Some of the reflections from this section of the event are included on the Pictor Gallery blog (in Swedish).

We love the focus on a single art work (the original idea for Slow Art Day was to spend one hour with a single artwork).

We can’t wait to see what Galleri Pictor and Munka folkhögskola come up with for Slow Art Day 2024 – and throughout the year. We also hope that future events include tea and biscuits, especially if they save some for us!

– Johanna, Ashley, Phyl and Jessica Jane

Mindfulness at the Butler Gallery in Ireland

Posted on by

For their fourth Slow Art Day, the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, Ireland – a gallery dedicated to contemporary Irish and international art – invited visitors to slow down and connect with artwork from their collection as part of a focused tour and mindfulness event.

Mindfulness practitioner Dee Hennessy started the event by leading a guided meditation.

Then Jean Mann, Assistant Learning and Public Engagement Curator, facilitated a slow looking session in one of the smaller collection galleries, a wing dedicated to the self-taught Irish painter, Tony O’Malley (see photos below).

Following the concentrated slow looking, Mann then led participants in a discussion about their responses to O’Malley’s art.

Tony O’Malley, Bahamas Obeah Sign, 1985
Acrylic, grit & needles on canvas
48” x 72”,122 x 183cm    
Tony O’Malley, Bahamas Obeah Sign, 1985
Acrylic, grit & needles on canvas
48” x 72”,122 x 183cm    

We at Slow Art Day HQ love slow looking at O’Malley’s work and look forward to what the Butler Gallery comes up with for 2024.

— Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, Phyl

P.S. Follow The Butler Gallery on their social media: Instagram | Facebook | X

An Ecological Journey of Artistic Discovery at Europos Parkas

Posted on by

For their fourth Slow Art Day, the Open-Air Museum Europos Parkas, in Vilnius, Lithuania, organized a plein-air slow looking session with their participants.

Europos Parkas is a 55 hectare (136 acre) open-air museum situated in the center of Europe that began as a relaxing place in the forest where artists, sculptors, and people around the world could meet, and eventually transformed into an open-air museum with modern sculptures and landscape art.

Slow Art Day at Europos Parkas

On the 15th of April, participants where invited to slowly experience three different sculptures:

  • “Gintarė/electricity” by Evaldas Pauza (Lithuania)
  • “Conjuror” by Magdalena Abakanowicz (Poland)
  • “Space of Unknown Growth” by Magdalena Abakanowicz (Poland)
“Gintarė/electricity” by Evaldas Pauza
“Conjuror” by Magdalena Abakanowicz
“Space of Unknown Growth” by Magdalena Abakanowicz

Participants were encouraged to pay close attention to their breathing, all while taking note of the colors, sounds, and smells surrounding them – and even being blindfolded so they could focus on touch.

After the slow viewing, art facilitator Karen Vanhercke led a discussion encouraging participants to make mindful connections between themselves and the surrounding nature, art, and other participants. To make the event more inclusive, discussions were conducted in English with Lithuanian translation. Tea and biscuits were also served.

Participants engaging with sculptures and nature on Slow Art Day

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love the creativity of the Europos Parkas team and look forward to seeing what they come up with in 2024.

– Jessica Jane, Johanna, Ashley and Phyl

P.S. Here you can find their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Cloudless Slow Looking with TarraWarra

Posted on by

For their third Slow Art Day, the TarraWarra Museum of Art in Melbourne, Australia, invited the public to a mindful slow looking session and group reflection featuring work by David Noonan from the exhibition David Noonan: Only when it’s cloudless . The event was led by Sarah Metzner, museum educator at TarraWarra and a visual, collaborative, and public artist who has been working with different community groups for 30 years.

On Slow Art Day, participants followed a 20-20-20 ratio of time during the hour. They were first welcomed and then invited to look at David Noonan’s artwork “Only when it’s cloudless” for 20 minutes.

David Noonan: Only when it’s cloudless’, installation view, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2022. Courtesy of the artist, Anna Schwartz Gallery, and Modern Art, London. Photo by Christian Capurro.

The group then spent 20 minutes slowly watching David Noonan’s 20 minute film: Mnemosyne, which has a focus on evoking memories (a link to the trailer is included in the picture below) before the session was rounded up with shared reflections for the final 20 minutes.

Note: We recommend you watch the trailer. We found it beautiful, eerie, and a little ominous.

Still from David Noonan’s 20 minute film: Mnemosyne.

The event was well received, with one participant saying that the experience “enhanced my love of art and mindfulness and reminded me to slow down and be present with myself and my practice.”

We look forward to what the TarraWarra Museum of Art comes up with for Slow Art Day 2023.

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, Robin and Phyl

P.S. You can find TarraWarra on Facebook and Instagram.

Harn Museum Mixes Cookies and Tea with Slow Looking

Posted on by

For their 7th Slow Art day, the Harn Museum of Art, located on the campus of The University of Florida in Gainsville, featured 5 artworks from their collection, including:

– Dogon Couple, by Kehinde Wiley
– Northeast Gorge at Appledore, by Childe Hassam
– Pli Selon Pli, by Akiyama Yo
– Waiting for the Signal, by Robert Fichter
– Horizontal Mask (korubla), by a Senufo artist

Host Allysa Peyton, Curator and Student Engagement Manager, and a group of University of Florida student ambassadors greeted participants with a flier that spelled out instructions, featured art works, and space to draw or take notes (see below).

Slow Art Day 2022 worksheet – Allysa Peyton
Harn Student Ambassadors welcome visitors.



The Harn instructed attendees to spend 10-12 minutes with each of the five featured artworks and encouraged them to not only draw or make notes, but also to reflect on the experience of looking slowly – and how what they see in the art may change over time.

After the slow looking session, everyone then gathered for tea, cookies, and discussion.

Educators and curators in the slow looking movement should take a look at their simple flyer (attached above) and consider copying elements of their approach for future sessions.

Akiyama Yo, Pli Selon Pli, 2002
Kehinde Wiley, Dogon Couple, 2008
Robert Fichter, Waiting for the Signal, 1981
Senufo Artist, Horizontal Mask (korubla), 20th century

The Harn Museum of Art has also launched a year-round program Art & Mindfulness, which incorporates slow looking and guided meditations in 40-minute workshops.

We at Slow Art Day HQ like the incorporation of drawing and notes – and especially appreciate the cookies and tea (yum, yum) at the end – and we look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2023.

Best,

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

P.S. The Harn Museum of Art can be found on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

The Frederiksberg Museums Host Slow Looking and Slow Conversation

Posted on by

For their first Slow Art Day, the Frederiksberg Museums, hosted both in-person facilitated slow looking and online sessions (read more about their event in Danish).

The Frederiksberg Museums, located in Denmark near Copenhagen, are a group of four museums: Bakkehuset, Storm, Møstings and Cisternerne, all within walking distance of each other – and all participated in Slow Art Day.

Bakkehuset featured their Den Nye Hjørnestue or The New Corner Room. This exhibit re-interpreted the salon culture that unfolded at Bakkehuset two hundred years ago.

Here at Slow Art Day HQ we wish we could have participated in this interesting exhibit.

The way it worked was eight people sat down around a table that had a wooden ball that rolled on a track, eventually stopping in front of a letter. The letter corresponded to cabinets and texts around the room that then formed the framework for a slow conversation. Once the conversation finished, they rolled the ball again spurring yet another slow dialogue. Very cool way of choosing a piece of art (or artifacts).

The New Corner Room at Bakkehuset showing the table with rolling ball, cabinets, and texts.

At the nearby Storm museum, Slow Art Day participants were invited to participate in the study of Danish humor and satire through the work of Robert Storm Peterson, also known as Storm P.

Storm P. at his desk, Storm Museum

In addition to these two in-person events, five guided Slow Looking videos were featured on the Frederiksberg Museums’ YouTube channel.

You can view them (in Danish) below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XELXRXQHPxU

The Frederiksberg Museums host slow looking events twice a week in one of their four venues throughout the year.

They also have some really interesting things planned:

  • Podcast
    They are launching a podcast later this year that will focus on mindful Slow Looking.
  • Mental Health
    They also plan to integrate Slow Looking into their art and health programs for the mentally vulnerable.

We are glad that the Frederiksberg Museums have brought their collective expertise and creativity to the slow art movement and look forward to their podcast, mental health programs, and design of their 2023 Slow Art Day.

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

P.S. Follow the Frederiksberg Museums on Instagram and Facebook.

First Slow Art Day in Gard, France

Posted on by

On April 2, 2022, artist Christine Cougoule held her first Slow Art Day at Showroom Chris & Co. in Gard, France.

Installation in the showroom.

Christine led three one-hour four-step slow-looking sessions:

  • Welcome with a quick mindfulness session
  • Look slowly at 3 works for 10 minutes each
  • End with a quick mindfulness session
  • Discuss words that come to mind while sharing tea

We like this approachable design, which integrates mindfulness (and tea), and encourage the global community to consider copying what she’s done.

Below is some of the art she featured.

Canvas mixed media on paper.

Canvas mixed media: acrylic, ink, charcoal, hand made paper.

Christine publicized her event on both Facebook and Instagram in advance with the below flyer: 

She plans to lead more Slow Art Day sessions throughout the year. Keep a lookout for these on her Facebook and Instagram.

We are thrilled to welcome Christine to the Slow Art Day community, and look forward to her participation in 2023.

Ashley, Phyl, Johanna, Jessica Jane

Slow Looking & Mindfulness in Singapore

Posted on by

Singaporean gallery ARTualize participated in their 2nd Slow Art Day by offering their year-long Mindfulness with Paintings class for free on the day of the event, and throughout April. Sok Leng, museum instructor, guided participants to look mindfully and slowly at the painting “By the River Seine” by established Singapore artist Low Hai Hong. They then had a discussion about the feelings the painting conjured up.

“By the River Seine” by artist Low Hai Hong. Medium: Oil on Canvas. Year: 2001.

Photo credit: ARTualize.

“Looking at paintings slowly gave me a deeper appreciation of the painting and a better understanding of myself through the art.”

Michelle, Slow Art Day Participant

ARTualize’s Slow Art Day event was also featured on Singapore’s main news broadcast channel Chinese Mediacorp Channel 8 News a few weeks after the event, and was the first time Slow Art has been featured on Singapore TV.

You can watch the TV segment below.

Educators and curators may want to copy the simple design of their weekly 1.5 hour Mindfulness with Paintings sessions, which are held every Saturday throughout the year:

1 – Concept – Introduce mindfulness and basic mindfulness techniques. 

2 – Practice – Look at selected paintings slowly and mindfully (at least 1 minute for each painting). 

3 – Discussion – Reflect upon the experience and realize how different paintings (and for that matter, life in general) feel, when we are mindful and when we take our time to slowly savour.

When we originally launched Slow Art Day in 2010, we wanted, in part, to inspire museums to produce year-round slow looking programming – and that has happened. In fact, slow looking programming has become so mainstream that ARTualize began slow looking sessions *before* they later joined Slow Art Day. We love this development!

Check them out on Facebook and Instagram.

We also encourage you to look more at the work of artist Low Hai Hong, and read about his journey, including pioneering the painting of oil on Chinese rice paper.

Ashley and Phyl

Gratitude and Mindfulness for FMoPA’s Slow Art Day

Posted on by

For their first Slow Art Day the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa, Florida, hosted an in-person event focused on mindfulness and gratitude.

Slow Art Day participants viewing the artwork by Paul Caponigro, Stream and Trees, Redding, Connecticut, 1967, Silver gelatin print, Collection of the Artist.

During the event, participants were taken through a step-by-step presentation by Zora Carrier, Executive Director of FMoPA, which we highly recommend curators and educators review and consider for inspiration for their own events.

Participants were first invited to do a body scan — noticing their sensations without judgement. We love this beginning. This is a great way to ground people in their body and senses.

Once they were tuned up, they were then invited to look slowly at two photographs by Paul Caponigro and David Dennard, and think about the following promts for each:

  • Look carefully at this artwork. What do you notice? Write down your observations. Be thorough.
  • Carefully review your observations.
  • Write down any inferences, opinions or conclusions formed because of known facts?
  • Are there any details that you want to know more about? Write 3-5 additional questions.
  • What is the context of the image?
  • What might the photographer be feeling?
  • Is the image positive, negative or neutral?
  • Is this image about an idea/concept that we can’t recognize with our five senses?

Paul Caponigro, American, b. 1932, Stream and Trees, Redding, Connecticut, 1967, Silver gelatin print, Collection of the Artist.
David Dennard, American, b. 1954, Paul Caponigro, A Desert Father, Death Valley, 2020, Platinum-palladium print, Collection of the Artist.

To finish the session, all participants were asked to do some breathing exercises and write a gratitude note to a person of their choice, guided by a three-step prompt:

  • Step 1: Focus on the recipient. Spend a few moments thinking about the note recipient—what they did for you; what they said; what it meant—focusing on the feel of the paper, colors, or what mental images come to mind when you think about the person.
  • Step 2: Be specific and personal. Think about the thing you’re most grateful for out of your relationship with the person.
  • Step 3: Think about how it made you feel—then and now. Don’t feel restricted by making it look ‘good’ as long as you can communicate your gratitude. Art is subjective, and this won’t be criticized.

In our own slow looking of these two photographs, we were particularly captured by the juxtaposition of the lush, first photograph with the spare moonscape-like second photograph. Then, after several minutes, we looked at the caption and realized that the artist of the first one is the subject of the second one. That brought added joy to the slow looking experience.

We recommend that all Slow Art Day educators and curators do as we did, and go through Carrier’s presentation. As much as possible, look with a child’s naive eye.

We are very happy to welcome FMoPA to the global Slow Art Day, and can’t wait to see what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2023.

Johanna, Jessica, Ashley and Phyl

PS. When we started Slow Art Day, almost no museums offered regular slow looking programming. We are happy to see that FMoPA not only participates in the global Slow Art Day, but also runs monthly slow looking events.