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