The annual event celebrating art.
Slow Art Day is Saturday, April 10, 2021 Join Us!
Photo by Greg Neville
Happy Slow Art Day 2021!
April 10th, 2021More than 110 museums* and galleries around the world are slowing down today – to create more inclusive environments that allow everyone to learn how to look at and love art.
We are really excited about the many creative events happening all over the world today. And we look forward to learn in the coming weeks more about what the educators and curators designed for this year (and we will be working with them to write-up and publish their 2021 reports).
Meanwhile, if you are looking to participate in a Slow Art Day event today, then you can go to your local museum or gallery to see if they are planning an event – or, you can click here on the official venues for this year. (tip: some of the links direct you to a museum homepage, from there go to their “events” section or search for “Slow Art Day”).
You can also check Instagram #slowartday2021.
Because of the pandemic, many events will be virtual allowing you to participate anywhere in the world.
Again, happy Slow Art Day!
– Phil, Johanna, Maggie, Ashley, and the whole volunteer team
*P.S. 110 is the official count, though we know many more are also celebrating.
Washington Post Covers Slow Art Day
April 5th, 2021In a terrific feature-length article published yesterday, the Washington Post writer Kelsey Ables covered slow looking, Slow Art Day, our message of radical inclusivity, and encouraged readers to sign up to one of the 90+ venues around the world for this year’s global event.
Participating museums like the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts are featured in the article, as is our friend, Jennifer Roberts, an art history professor at Harvard.
Further, the article highlighted a key element of our mission: increasing the accessibility of museums. From the beginning, we’ve believed that slow looking is an act of radical inclusivity where the viewer includes themselves, rather than being lectured to or told how to look. This radical inclusivity we believe is key to opening up museums and galleries to many more people.
I encourage you to read the article and share it on social media.
Also, if you are hosting a Slow Art Day event this weekend, then we wish you all the best and look forward to your report on how it went (and please post on social media with the tag #slowartday2021).
If you want to look slowly this weekend, then see the list of venues here.
Happy Slow Art Day 2021!
Best,
Phil
P.S. Again, you can read the Washington Post article here.
Slow Art Day Italian Interview
March 30th, 2021[Note: Slow Art Day 2021 is coming up Saturday, April 10 – read the 2020 report for ideas on how to design your slow looking events.]
In this interview, Annalisa Banzi, Ph.D. (researcher in museum studies, psychology and neuroscience at CESPEB-Bicocca University) shares some ideas on “Wellness and Museums” with Elisabetta Roncati (art influencer), and focuses on Slow Art Day as a great example of programs that help with mental health.
Banzi and Roncati discuss the powerful effect of slow looking and how Slow Art Day is radically inclusive – i.e., allows people to include themselves in the art experience.
Moreover, Banzi argues that Slow Art Day has become a useful way to enhance people’s mental wellbeing during the pandemic *and* has given an important way for museums to interact with visitors all over the world.
Listen to the interview in Italian here.
Phil
2020 Annual Report
February 7th, 2021Our 2020 report is now available for you to review!
Read it and get inspired by how educators around the world engaged the public during the pandemic.
Also, get practical tips for designing virtual events.
A few highlights from 2020:
- 2020 was our 10th anniversary. Since we began, more than 1,500 Slow Art Day events have been held in museums around the world, including The Tate Modern, SFMoMA, The Art Gallery of Ontario, The National Gallery in Australia, and The Art Institute of Chicago, to name a few.
- We hosted virtual webinar training just after the lockdowns on how to use Zoom and host virtual events, with participants from several continents.
- All Slow Art Day events were virtual this year except one, which was a walk-by window display.
- A number of museums hosted their first Slow Art Day in 2020, despite the pandemic
- Starting in April of 2020, we invited Slow Art Day hosts to join us for webinars with leading African Americans from outside the art world including:
- NBA Deputy Commissioner, Mark Tatum
- Then-Princeton educator, and now chair of President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisors, Cecilia Rouse
- Dallas youth community organizer, Antoine Joyce
- Former Deputy Mayor to then-Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Bo Kemp
- We also spent time with museum leaders like Jack Becker, CEO and Executive Director of the Jocelyn Museum of Art in Omaha, who talked about “Diversity, Inclusion, and the Museum Experience.
So, thank you, thank you for helping us reach our 10 year anniversary – and for all you do to remind the world of the power of art to bring us together.
Best,
Phil, Johanna, Ashley, Maggie, and the whole Slow Art Day team
P.S. Again, here’s the link to download the annual report.