As Slow Art Day participants, we know the sublime experience that we can have by slowing down to observe and truly take in a piece of art. We spend 10 minutes, 15 minutes—up to an hour­­—and encourage others to do the same. But we don’t think to suggest that people should spend all day everyday in front of the same artwork. It would never occur to us. Would anyone do that?

Art photographer Andy Freeberg found out when he noticed women sitting near certain art pieces in the State Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

These women­­ are retired professionals who serve as guards in art museums all over Russia. They sit on chairs near a particular piece of art in the gallery, their presence so constant that they become part of the viewing experience. Freeberg noticed visual connections between the women and the art they were sitting with, which prompted him to begin taking photos that turned into the Guardians project, a photographic exploration of this uniquely Russian phenomenon. 

Altman’s Portrait of I.P. Degas, Tretyakov State Gallery. Photo by Andy Freeberg.

 2^nd Century Mummy Masks, National Pushkin Museum. Photo by Andy Freeberg.

Why are these women guarding the art instead of uniformed, young guards? Evgeny Berezner of the Russian Ministry of Culture, told Freeberg, “It has to be these ‘not so young’ women because they know the history of our country. Russia has had a very difficult history with its government and rulers over the years, but the one thing all Russians are proud of is our art, our culture. These women are the guardians of our culture.”

These guardians of culture take their jobs seriously. One guardian said that this responsibility is worth the three-hour commute to and from the Tretyakov Galleries museum, where she’s worked for more than 10 years. She told Freeberg she’d rather be sitting among the history of her country than sitting on a bench by her house complaining about her illnesses like other old people do.

Patrons of the museums, however, are so used to the guardians’ presence that they often look past them or don’t notice them at all. What do you think? Are you ready for extremely slow art? If you had to pick one artwork to look at for day, weeks, months and years on end, which would it be?

You can start to have this experience by viewing some of the guardians on Andy Freeberg’s website or see all 37 images from the project in the Guardians book, on sale now.

-written by Jennafer Martin, Slow Art Day blog editor; edited by Phil Terry.

Slow Art Day participants around the world know that slow looking at art is a multi-dimensional experience that impacts our ability to look at and love art. But, many have also suspected that it has even wider applicability. It turns out that that a program called “Enhancing Observations Skills” at the Yale School of Medicine confirms our suspicions.

According to a June 2012 article in The Wall Street Journal, (“How to End the Age of Inattention” by Holly Finn), this Yale program began a decade ago when the curator of education at the Yale Center for British Art teamed up with a staff member at Yale’s medical school. Their goal: improve diagnostic skills of their medical students.

What did they do? They launched a slow art program that is cannily similar to what we do with thousands of participants around the world. Every year, they assign students paintings to observe for 15 minutes, asking students to note details and then discuss their experiences afterwards.

Improving the future doctors’ ability to see details helps them better pay attention when diagnosing illnesses. The program is now not only mandatory for first-year medical students at Yale, it’s expanded to more than 20 other medical schools, including Harvard, Columbia, and Cornell.

This slow art-centered approach, or “museum intervention”, is so effective that the article’s author suggests leaders in business, politics and even religion may benefit from adopting it as well.

What do you think? Does slow looking wide applicability? Would you like your doctor to visit the museum and look slowly? What about other professionals? How about politicians? Are you aware of other applications or of other pioneers? Leave a comment and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Mrs. James Guthrie by Lord Frederic Leighton is one of the pieces medical students view in their slow-art focused program to improve diagnostic skills

– report by Slow Art Day blog editor Jennafer Martin, Edited by Phil Terry.