Multiple Paths To Slow Looking at Wellcome Collection

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For their fourth year participating in Slow Art Day, Wellcome Collection in London hosted a full day of guided and self-guided slow-looking experiences across the museum. Wellcome Collection is a free museum that explores human health through the intersections of art, medicine, and science. Building on the range of facilitated sessions introduced in previous years, the 2025 program offered visitors multiple ways to engage slowly with artworks, objects, and ideas.

The Wellcome Collection team led five guided slow-looking sessions, each facilitated by a different staff member and focused on a distinct body of work.

Isabelle Gapomo guided participants in close observation of a photograph by Marc Ferrez from the Hard Graft exhibition, titled ‘Escravos em terreiro de uma fazenda de café na região do Vale do Paraíba’ (c.1882), examining how plantation labor was depicted by early photographers and how those images are experienced today.

‘Escravos em terreiro de uma fazenda de café na região do Vale do Paraíba’ (c.1882). Marc Ferrez.

Griff Davies led a session centered on the dream-inspired paintings of Bryan Charnley, using the imagery to prompt discussion around mental health.

“The Stars Only Come Out at Night” by Bryan Charnley.
“Nail Schizophrene” by Bryan Charnley.

Sana Siddiqui reprised her popular session last year and used vintage food advertisements to evoke memory and sensory response.

In the Reading Room, Isabel Greenslade gathered participants around “Closing Neural Tube Dress,” a sculptural garment that encouraged reflection on abstraction.

Participants slow looking at the “Closing Neural Tube Dress“.

Jake Blackavar led a session that moved through multiple floors of the museum, selecting a sculpture, a video work, and a pair of paintings to explore how different media and gallery contexts shape the slow-looking experience.

“Washerwoman” by Shannon Alonzo.
“Orphans” (left) by Frederic Cayley Robinson.
“Orphans” (right) by Frederic Cayley Robinson.

In addition to the guided sessions, the museum designated a room as a Slow Art Day hub where tours began and visitors could drop in to learn more about the event. In this space, visitors were invited to practice slow looking independently using a rotating screen of images from Wellcome Collection’s holdings, which changed every ten minutes.

What a thoughtful and well-designed program. Wow.

We at Slow Art Day HQ thank Jake Blackavar and the entire Wellcome Collection team for continuing to lead the way in producing meaningful and multi-dimensional experiences.

We eagerly look forward to what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2026.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Follow Wellcome Collection on their Instagram and Facebook

Photography in Thessaloniki, Greece

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For Slow Art Day 2025, Pinakotheke Gallery in Thessaloniki, Greece hosted a slow looking event focused on the photographic exhibition “ABSORBED (Damn, I miss snowboarding)” by Theodoros Vranas.

The exhibition presented a series of photographic works in which the artist explores questions of self and psychology, placing moments of human deadlock within landscapes of overwhelming beauty. Visitors were invited to observe a limited number of works closely and reflect on their experience.

Pinakotheke is a creative project by photographer Stefanos Tsakiris, based in the center of Thessaloniki, and dedicated to promoting photographic work through exhibitions, printing techniques, workshops, and events.

We thank Stefanos and the team at Pinakotheke for participating in Slow Art Day 2025, and look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2026.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. – Check out Pinakotheke on Instagram.

First Slow Art Day at The Museum of Book and Printing of Ukraine

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For their first Slow Art Day, The Museum of Book and Printing of Ukraine in Kyiv organized a hybrid event. The Museum is housed in a former building of the Kyiv Cave Monastery Press that was built in the early 17th century and was then open to the public as a State Museum in the 1975. The Museum collection contains 58,000 exhibits – from manuscripts, to old printed books from the 16th century, to engravings, graphic works, paintings, and so on.

On the 15th of April, the Museum invited participants (online and in person) to spend an hour and a half focusing on one work by Heorhiy Tkachenko (1898 – 1993), a Ukrainian bard and bandurist (which is a person who plays the Ukrainian plucked string instrument known as the bandura).

Flyer of the event

Participants were encouraged to look at the artwork carefully and then discuss what they noticed and how it made them feel. They also read Heorhiy Tkachenko’s biography and discussed what linked the artwork to the artist’s life.

Positive notes (in Ukrainian) left by participants on the event

The event was advertised on their social media account (Facebook and Instagram).

We love the creativity of this event, and look forward to what the museum comes up with for Slow Art Day 2024.

– Jessica Jane, Johanna, Ashley, and Phyl