The annual event celebrating art.
Slow Art Day is Saturday, April 5, 2025 Join Us!
Photo by Greg Neville
Locals Sketch for Slow Art Day at the Art Gallery of St. Albert
August 9th, 2024For their 2024 Slow Art Day (their fifth!), the Art Gallery of St. Albert in Canada invited local sketch groups to visit the exhibition Threading Through Time by Jamaican visual artist Raneece Buddan. Director Leah Louden told us they chose to focus on Raneece’s exhibition, in part because her work “rewards the viewer with lots of fine details you only discover through careful observation.”
This year, the museum decided to partner with a series of local organizations who could bring in “sketch groups” including the Edmonton Art Club, The Federation of Canadian Artists Edmonton Chapter, Sketch Around YEG Club, and the St. Albert Visual Arts Council Guilds.
Upon arrival, the groups were offered both free refreshments and free drawing materials. In total, over 30 visitors joined. Some participants stayed for an extended period of time, spending 2 hours drawing and slowly appreciating the artwork.
All visitors were encouraged to choose a single artwork in the show, and then look and sketch slowly. The museum also provided prompts (see below – and feel free to copy!).
Staff were on hand to answer questions and more in-depth information about the art and about the process of slow looking/sketching.
We can’t wait to see what the Art Gallery of St. Albert comes up with for their next Slow Art Day event in 2025.
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with events at the Art Gallery of St. Albert via their social media: @ArtGalleryofStAlbert on Facebook and Instagram
The Barnes Foundation Hosts Their 5th Slow Art Day
August 8th, 2024For Slow Art Day 2024 – their 5th Slow art Day, the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia invited visitors to look slowly at five artworks from their collection:
- Cezanne’s Card Players
- Soutine’s Flayed Rabbit
- Renoir’s Before The Bath
- Claude Monet’s The Studio Boat
- Picasso’s Young Woman Holding a Cigarette
After looking slowly at these artworks, the many participants went to the Kean Family Classroom for an opportunity to talk together. This is the moment that Slow Art Day becomes community – a time to reflect, see through each other’s eyes, and create both intimacy and joy.
Led by Michael Williamson, Senior Instructor in Adult Education, the discussion among the participants was indeed so good – people felt so connected to the art and to each other – that it went way beyond the scheduled time allotted for it.
Giving expression to the exuberance that everyone felt, Williamson called the event a “resounding success.”
Below you will find a photo from the conversation – and their very cool handout (feel free to copy!).
In terms of marketing, the Barnes Foundation promoted Slow Art Day on their website, Instagram, and Facebook.
At Slow Art Day HQ we get inspired by these reports that come in from around the world – from big museums, and small, to highly influential organizations like The Barnes.
The Barnes, which has a long history of fostering slow looking at art, has become a great leader in our global movement and we look forward to seeing what they come up with for 2025, which also happens to be their centennial year.
– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
“Tell Me Stories”: Slow Art Day at Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio
July 18th, 2024This year the city-wide Slow Art Day phenomenon continued in Bloomington, Illinois, with 20(!) participating museums and art galleries. And, for the third year running, Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio participated.
For their contribution to the citywide Slow Art Day, Angel Ambrose featured “Tell Me Stories”, a painting that had been on long-term loan at Illinois State University’s Alumni Center on Michigan Avenue in Downtown Chicago.
On Slow Art Day, Angel invited visitors of all ages to the studio gallery to take a slow look and hear about the stories behind the painting between 10 AM – 2 PM.
Angel welcomed all participants and asked them to take 3-5 minutes or more to contemplate “Tell Me Stories” or another artwork using some of the following prompts for slow looking.
She came up with some good prompts, as you see below.
—- Prompts
For your head (objective thought/intellect) you can consider any of the following:
- What did you see?
- What decisions did you notice that Angel made in her painting—line, color, texture, form, repetition, contrast, etc?
- Was there a color scheme/theme apparent?
- Notice the paint—can you see individual brushstrokes, or a smooth surface, or perhaps another tool was used to apply the paint?
- How was movement used in the artwork?
- Was the piece representational, abstracted, or somewhere between? Why do you think Angel chose this format?
For your heart (feelings/emotions), consider the following:
- How did you feel when you looked at the work?
- Did the colors evoke any emotions?
- What did these feelings make you think about?
- Did your mood change after looking at the artwork?
- Did you experience any personal significance to the piece?
During the day, visitors could also visit any of the 20 Bloomington Slow Art Day locations free of charge. The day concluded with a closing reception at The Hangar Art Co. from 2 – 4 PM for participants from all venues.
The Eaton Gallery was the first to host a Slow Art Day in Bloomington. In 2020 at the height of the pandemic, they organized a walk up/drive by exhibition. Then in 2022 Eaton and other Bloomington galleries pioneered hosting a city-wide Slow Art Day – and Angel Ambrose was in that original group.
At Slow Art Day HQ we have eagerly followed the growth of Slow Art Day in Bloomington along Route 66. We (unsurprisingly) like to take things slow, but the fast spread of the citywide movement in Bloomington (and now around the world) both calms and excites us.
We can’t wait to see what Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio comes up with for Bloomington’s citywide Slow Art Day in 2025.
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with events at Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio via their Facebook page.
P.P.S. We are hearing rumors that the state of Illinois might host a *statewide* Slow Art Day in 2025. Stay tuned.
Revelatory Slow Art Day at Maryhill Museum of Art
July 8th, 2024For their fourth Slow Art Day, Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington, invited visitors to join their Curator of Education, Sorcha Meek Paul, in a lively and ‘revelatory’ slow looking session focused on two paintings in the museum’s 2024 exhibition “Wallula to the Sea”, curated by Steve Grafe.
The two paintings were:
- ‘Journey’ by Chinook artist Greg A. Robinson
- ‘Wallula to the Sea’, a quadriptych, by Erik Sandgren
Ahead of Slow Art Day, the event was advertised via the museum’s website, Instagram and Facebook accounts. Sorcha also shared a post on her personal Instagram account. On the day itself, visitors responded to the invitation for “lively discussion” and participated in an interactive session with Sorcha (as we can see in the photos).
On the museum’s website, two lines in the description of the event caught our attention whilst writing this report – they point to the ‘revelatory’ nature of their Slow Art Day:
Looking creates dialogue which then reveals details, understanding, and life-long skills for looking at and connecting with art and art museums. No experience necessary.
Maryhill Museum of Art website (invitation to the Slow Art Day event)
This sums up the principle of Slow Art Day in a beautiful way. Thank you, Maryhill Museum of Art for these words, and for your great event.
We can’t wait to see what you come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with all events at the Maryhill Museum of Art via their social media: @maryhillmuseum