Tag Archives: hybrid

Guided Slow Looking and Drawing at the National Gallery of Canada

Posted on by
Reply

The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, hosted its fourth annual Slow Art Day on April 11, 2026. Andrea Gumpert, Educator of Wellbeing Programs, led the efforts for this year’s event, which invited visitors to either participate in a guided onsite experience, watch a guided slow looking video from home, or engage independently with a bilingual handout that encouraged them to “Slow Down. Reflect. Discover. Engage.”

A mix of English- and French-speaking participants joined Interpreter-Guides Taylor Simard and Eddie Schmidt for an hour-long onsite guided slow looking session. The groups began with a warm-up and introductory conversation about the purpose of slowing down.

Participants then spent five minutes looking at a chosen artwork, followed by a group discussion. They then moved to a different gallery where they repeated the exercise. Following that, participants were invited to explore the museum and select additional artworks for further slow looking. Some explored Indigenous and Canadian galleries, while others gravitated to the European galleries. They were offered folding stools for comfort, and pencils, paper, and sketch boards, many of which were used for drawing.

Participants engaged in slow looking and drawing at the National Gallery of Canada. Photo credit: Taylor Simard.

During the facilitated sessions, the Interpreter-Guides used open-ended prompt questions to facilitate discussion, including: “What is your first impression? Why did you choose this work?” and “Can you associate a word or an emotion to this artwork?” They also encouraged participants to reflect on what the artwork told them about themselves and to jot down a memory or sketch something simple.

Guide Eddie Schmidt noted that participants were “chatty and had great observations, discussion,” while Taylor Simard observed that several participants were “locked in” for the full ten minutes of observation. Both said that participants truly enjoyed the experience, and would return for the Gallery’s monthly Guided Slow Looking Sunday program.

That’s wonderful. Back in 2010, we set a key goal of the Slow Art Day movement: use the annual day to encourage museums to adopt year-round programming and many have like the National Gallery of Canada.

We think this kind of device-off, intensive, real-space experience with other humans is just what our fractured world needs.

The Gallery also did some great outreach. The Visitor Services team distributed the bilingual Slow Looking handout to 59 groups. The Marketing team created a one-minute guided slow looking video, as noted earlier, that was published on Facebook and Instagram, and was later uploaded to the Gallery’s Guided Slow Looking Sunday page.

We at Slow Art Day HQ are grateful to Andrea Gumpert, Taylor Simard, Eddie Schmidt, and the entire team at the National Gallery of Canada for their continued dedication to our movement and we look forward to seeing what they design for Slow Art Day 2027.

— Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. View them on their website.

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

Posted on by

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

National Gallery of Canada: Deepening Reflection Through Guided Looking

Posted on by

For their third Slow Art Day, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa invited participants to join their event onsite or from home through a guided slow-looking video.

Participants during guided slow looking at the National Gallery of Canada. Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada.

Educator Andrea Gumpert reported that in-person participants were led in both English and French through 2 hour-long sessions by Interpreter-Guides Morel McMaster and Juliana Abramo. Each session began with a brief warm-up and an introduction to the purpose of slowing down with art. Participants then spent five minutes seated with an artwork of their choosing, followed by a group discussion. They repeated the exercise with a different artwork in another gallery, this time extending the observation period.

One of the core philosophies of Slow Art Day is that if you spend a few minutes with a piece of art, then even if you “don’t like it”, you still build a relationship with it and that often means you go deeper than “like or don’t like.”

This experience is repeated thousands of times around the world and was certainly present in Ottawa for Slow Art Day.

In fact, during the first exercise, one participant shared with Juliana that they “didn’t like the painting they chose at first but ended up really appreciating it towards the end,” highlighting how slow looking can shift perception.

Practically speaking, all visitors received a bilingual handout encouraging them to “Slow Down. Reflect. Discover. Engage.”

Slow_Art_Day_handout_2025_8.5 x 11_PRINTDownload

Below is the video that viewers participating at home could experience:

The National Gallery also did a good job attracting media attention for their Slow Art Day.

CBC Radio’s All in a Day with Alan Neal aired a segment “Take your time with the slooooooow art tour”. CBC Television likewise featured the event in a piece titled The National Gallery wants you to slow down and appreciate art, in which reporter Sandra Abma experienced a slow art tour with educator Andrea Gumpert.

Based on positive visitor feedback from last year’s Slow Art Day, the Gallery has also introduced monthly Guided Slow Looking Sundays, held on the last Sunday of each month. This warms out heart given that one of our core objectives is to inspire year-round programming.

We extend our appreciation to Andrea Gumpert, Morel McMaster, Juliana Abramo, and the entire National Gallery team for their ongoing commitment to slow-looking experiences. We look forward to their continued participation next year.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Explore the National Gallery of Canada’s programs on Facebook and Instagram.

Slow Art Day in Köping, Sweden

Posted on by

For their second Slow Art Day, Köpings Museum in Sweden organized both an in-person as well as an online slow-looking event. Additionally, this year the local library in Köping participated in Slow Art Day by borrowing a painting from the museum to use for slow looking.

Visitors to Köpings Museum were invited to join a slow-looking guided tour in the exhibit “A picture – a story” (“En bild – en historia”) by Ulf Rehnholm and Inger Holmberg.

Exhibition poster for the exhibition “A Picture – A History”

Visitors were also offered the below slow-looking instructions (in Swedish) for a self-guided option, as well as paper binoculars to help focus on details in the art.

SLOW-ART-DAY_Instruktion-liggande2024Download

The museum also offered an online slow-looking alternative through their Facebook page, where they shared instructions and the below photo of “Solar Altar” by Lars Lindeberg from the museum’s collection.

“Solar Altar” by Lars Lindeberg (1925-2011). Color lithograph, 1999. The artwork belongs to Köping municipality’s art collection. The image was used for Köpings Museum’s digital Slow Art Day event.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love seeing the library and museum work together – this is a great partnership that should inspire other museums around the world to work with their local libraries. Perhaps next year we will see more such partnerships develop.

In the meantime, we look forward to what Köpings Museum and the Köping Library come up with for 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with future events at Köpings museum via their Facebook page

P.P.S. There is no possessive apostrophe in Swedish – so Köpings Museum is written without that apostrophe (in English it would be Köping’s Museum).

Gateway to Himalayan Art Workshop at Lehigh University Art Galleries

Posted on by

For their fourth Slow Art Day the Lehigh University Art Galleries in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, extended gallery hours and presented a free community workshop in partnership with Shanthi Project, that connected with works on display in the Gateway to Himalayan Art Exhibition

Image: Lobsang Drubjam Tsering. Medicine Buddha Palace (Copy of first painting from the set of the Tibetan Medical Paintings from Mentsikhang Lhasa) Rebgong county, Qinghai Province, China; 2012-2013 Pigments on cloth. Rubin Museum of Art. SC2013.6
Slow looking workshop in Lehigh University Galleries with Dr. Kristin Baxter, 2023.

On April 15, participants were first led by teaching artist, Dr. Kristin Baxter in meditation and grounding exercises. They then spent some time looking slowly at a thangka painting of the Medicine Buddha on display as part of the exhibition Gateway to Himalayan Art (pictured above). Following their experience in the gallery, everyone was invited to create their own mindfulness journal to take home. 

LUAG also posted short videos on social media to encourage individuals to slow down and take time to view individual works of art, as well as on LUAG@Home – an online listing of resources on their website. 

At Slow Art Day HQ we love that Lehigh partnered with the Shanthi Project to bring meditative practices to their event. Meditation and slow looking are closely intwined as demonstrated by what the Rubin Museum of Art, the Phoenix Museum of Art and others have done since the beginning of our movement.

We look forward to whatever Lehigh University Art Galleries come up with for Slow Art Day 2024.

-Johanna, Ashley, Phyl, and Jessica Jane

Art Deco Movie Theater Shows a New Kind of Slow Art Day

Posted on by

Arlee Theater in Mason City, Illinois, a locally-owned and operated art deco movie theater, which relies on volunteers to stay open, hosted its first Slow Art Day (and the first one we know of in a movie theater – wow!) with great success.

Exterior of the Arlee Theater in Mason City. The photo is from the Arlee website.

Ahead of the event, local residents were invited to submit an artwork to be considered for a slow looking session to be held on the big screen.

Arlee’s volunteer crew selected five artworks (out of the overall twenty that were submitted) to be shown for five minutes each before Saturday night’s movie screening. These replaced the normal pre-show advertisements, and were accompanied by brief contextual information about Slow Art Day to help orient people arriving at different times. You can view the five works below.

Following the event, a timed video of the artworks was uploaded to the Arlee website and Facebook page so people could participate at home as well.

Marcia Maxson Schwartz, who is an Arlee board member and volunteer, reported that they received a lot of positive feedback, including from visitors who rarely go to museums or galleries. In fact, by bringing art into the movie theater, Arlee is showing all of us how to bring art into the lives of *many* more people.

Further, Schwartz and her volunteer team hope to use this year’s success to create a citywide Slow Art Day in Mason next year.

“While we only had a couple of days to get things together, our team considers it a success and is looking forward to next year – we’ve even started the ball rolling with a store owner and the town’s librarian to coordinate events across this little town next year.”

Marcia Maxaon Schwartz

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love the pioneering efforts of the Arlee Theater and hope they start a movement of movie theaters around the world showing art slowly.

We also love the mix of kinds of institutions that are now participating in Slow Art Day – major national museums, regional and university museums, galleries, outdoor sculpture parks, avant garde art spaces, and local movie theaters in small towns. Hurray!

Art needs to be slowly seen *everywhere* and we thank the volunteers at Arlee for innovating a new way to reach more people.

We eagerly anticipate what Arlee and the town of Mason, which may host a citywide Slow Art Day in 2024, come up with for next year.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

Slow Down, Live Long, and Live Well at the Sociedade Das Artes in Serra Negra, Brazil

Posted on by

For their third year, the Sociedade Das Artes in Serra Negra, Brazil held a hybrid Slow Art Week, hosted by artist Henrique Vieira Filho. The Sociedade Das Artes features works by contemporary artists, along with artistic services and products.

Exploring the theme of “Slow Down, Live Long, and Live Well,” the gallery allowed for four visitors at a time and each visitor chose which works of art they wanted to appreciate slowly (note: the gallery asked that visitors RSVP ahead of their visit to secure a time to attend).

Visitors in the gallery space.

Henrique Vieira Filho wrote, as part of the day, “Living at a fast pace certainly has a certain charm (“live fast, die young”), however, I think the alternative is much more interesting: slow down, live a lot, and live well! The Slow Art Movement advocates the experience of time with greater QUALITY for everything and everyone.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Online advertisement
Henrique Vieira Filho holding a copy of O Serrano with an article about Slow Art.

The event was advertised online (see above) and there was also an article written in the local press (also see above).

Visit Google Drive or Facebook to view a video that was created to allow people to explore the exhibit virtually.

We love their focus for 2022 and look forward to seeing what they come up with for next year.

Best,

– Robin, Ashley, Phyl, Johanna, and Jessica Jane

P.S. The Sociedade Das Artes can be found on Instagram and Facebook.

Light and Movement at Wanås Konst’s Fifth Slow Art Day

Posted on by

For their fifth Slow Art Day, Wanås Konst, a sculpture park located in southern Sweden, offered a hybrid in-person and online experience focused on artist Katarina Löfström’s outdoor installation Open Source (Cinemaskope).

Katarina Löfström, Open Source (Cinemaskope), 2018/2021, photo courtesy of Erika Alm

View Open Source (Cinemaskope) in motion.

Katarina Löfström sees her works as paintings of light and movement. Open Source (Cinemaskope) consists of a screen made from sequins on a tall metal frame. This screen “reflects the surrounding nature and creates a continuous, transforming abstract film”. Read more about Katarina on Wanas Konst’s website.

Over a hundred visitors slowly looked at Löfström’s work, and host Erika Alm shared elements of the exhibit via Instagram, allowing for remote participation.

We at Slow Art Day HQ are really glad to have this museum, whose mission is to produce and communicate art that challenges and changes ways of seeing, involved in our global movement.

We can’t wait to see what they come up with for next year!

– Robin, Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Wanås Konst can be found on Instagram and Facebook.

Observation and Introspection at The Erie Art Museum

Posted on by

For their third Slow Art Day, the Erie Art Museum partnered with the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania Art Therapy Program to host a very interesting art therapy hybrid event celebrating the importance of observation, introspection, and emotionality when looking slowly at art.

Beatrice, photo courtesy of Averie Shaughnessy-Comfort

Each in-person visitor was given a journal in which to record their thoughts, observations, and ideas with the following attached label:


Through guided observation, visitors were asked to think about the following:

  • Spend a few moments being present with this piece.
    Pay attention to thoughts/emotions.
    As you gaze at the piece, notice your breath and your body.
  • Describe: What do you see?
  • Analyze: Think of 4 emotions or words that you associate with this piece.
  • Inquire: What does this piece tell you about yourself?
  • As you reflect on these photos, jot down a memory in this shared journal that comes to mind.

Out of Many, photo courtesy of Averie Shaughnessy-Comfort

For visitors who couldn’t make it to the museum, art therapy students at the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania held a Virtual Open Studio. An aspiring art therapist guided visitors through slow looking techniques.

At Slow Art Day HQ we love seeing the use of art therapy techniques for Slow Art Day and look forward to what the Erie Art Museum comes up with, perhaps again in partnership with Edinboro, for their fourth Slow Art Day

– Phyl, Robin, Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane

P.S. The Erie Art Museum can be found on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Slow Art Week at Atelier delle Fate

Posted on by

For their second Slow Art Day, the Atelier delle Fate in Calvagese della Riviera, Italy, hosted a week of hybrid in-person and virtual slow looking events.

Atelier della Fate Slow Art Day poster 2022
Artwork by Lorenzo Bianchini • Samuel Maccarinelli • Lorena Bianchini. Photo: Lorena Bianchini.

During the week, visitors to the gallery were able to slowly look at a series of 15 artworks by different artists. They were encouraged to write a written response to each of the artworks, including reflection about the emotions or memories evoked by each painting.

The event was also made virtual, and images of each work were shared in staggered intervals to the event page on Facebook, where people also shared their thoughts in the comments.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we especially like that participants who could not visit the gallery in person could still join online. The idea of staggering images to be released across a week allows people to make slow looking part of each day — a practice we love to see.

We look forward to what the Atelier delle Fate comes up with in 2023.

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, Phyl and Robin