Cameron Art Museum Hosts Second Slow Art Day

For Slow Art Day 2025, Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina invited visitors to participate in a self-guided slow-looking experience designed to encourage careful observation and personal meaning-making. The museum emphasized that slow looking is not driven by curators or historians, but by individuals forming their own connections with artworks.

Visitors were encouraged to intentionally select three to four artworks and spend extended time with each, using a printed Guide to Slow Art that offered practical suggestions such as finding a comfortable place to sit, bringing a notebook and pencil, and building meaning through sustained observation and conversation with companions

Th guide suggested visitors spend time with artworks from the exhibition The Game Changers, which highlighted the Abstract Expressionist artists Helen Frankenthaler, Richard Diebenkorn, and Robert Rauschenberg. Suggested works included:

  • Girl Squatting (1960) by Richard Diebenkorn
  • Tiger’s Eye (1987) by Helen Frankenthaler
  • Autobiography (1968) by Robert Rauschenberg


From left to right: Helen Frankenthaler, Tiger’s Eye, 1987. Color etching, aquatint, lithograph, and
silkscreen. Collection of Cameron Art Museum, Belden Collection. Richard Diebenkorn, Girl Squatting, 1960. Oil on canvas. On loan from the Akron Art Museum, purchased with funds from the Phyllis Albrecht Memorial Fund
. Bottom: Robert Rauschenberg, Autobiography 1968. Offset lithography on paper. On loan from Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Gift of Blake Byre, A.B. ‘57.


Slow Art Day participant viewing Robert Rauschenberg, Why You Can’t Tell #2, 1979. Lithograph and collage on paper. On loan from the Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina,
Greensboro, NC, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Dorsky.

Slow Art Day participants viewing Robert Rauschenberg, Autobiography 1968. Offset lithography on paper. On loan from Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Gift of Blake Byre, A.B. ‘57.

By offering a clear framework while leaving interpretation open, Cameron Art Museum created a Slow Art Day experience that supported independent exploration and reflection throughout the day.

Below is their front desk signage for the day, and you may download their Slow Art Day Flyer to see how they framed their instructions for the day. (PDF, 7.5 MB).

We thank Ashley Rowland, Education Assistant, and the Cameron Art Museum team for hosting 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. – Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

McMaster Museum of Art Produces Their 9th(!) Slow Art Day

For their 9th(!) Slow Art Day, the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Canada, hosted a virtual slow looking session organized by Information Officer Olga Kolotylo together with Education Officer Teresa Gregorio.

On April 2, participants looked slowly at artworks by Denyse Thomasos (1964-2012), Alexandra Luke, the Painters Eleven, and others.

At the start of the session, participants were first given context about the land which the McMaster is located on, which traditionally belongs to the Hadenosaunee and Anishinaabe nations. Slow Art Day was then introduced, and The McMaster presented the following advice for slow looking:

  • Get comfortable
  • Pay attention to your senses
  • Open yourself up
  • Allow yourself to enter the artwork
  • Trust your intuition
  • Share your findings
  • Look again

For the remainder of the time, participants were given silence to look slowly followed then by discussion.

The session was recorded and is available to watch below. We encourage art educators to check out the video for inspiration and ideas, including Kolotylo’s moderation and the way she did not reveal the artist or title until the end of each conversation.

Slow Art Day 2022 at the McMaster Museum of Art.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love the longtime leadership of the McMaster Museum of Art in the slow looking movement and eagerly look forward to what they create in 2023.

We can’t wait to see what the McMaster Museum of Art comes up with for Slow Art Day in 2023.

– Johanna, Jessica Jane, Ashley, Phyl and Robin

P.S. You can stay updated with events at the McMaster Museum of Art via their IG page.

P.P.S. I, Johanna, feel especially nostalgic when I write about the McMaster events, since their event was one of the first reports I put together for Slow Art Day when I joined the team.