Job Seekers and Art Converge in Seattle Art Museum

Posted on June 9, 2025 by Phyl Terry

Volunteers Ashley Christensen, Erinn Kruser and Forrest Corbett organized a group of 25+ job seekers to spend an evening together looking at art slowly at the Seattle Art Museum, Thursday, June 5, 2025. This is part of a growing partnership between Never Search Alone and Slow Art Day.

Below is Christensen’s write-up. And the team at Slow Art Day HQ agree – we couldn’t have described the impact of slow looking at art better.

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Slow Art Day at Seattle Art Museum – Recap

1. We all saw something different.
Despite looking at the same painting for 10 minutes, my group came away with wildly different takeaways. From metaphors and feelings to objective facts (sometimes one of us missed whole sections of the art pieces). I was honestly surprised. I thought the longer we looked, the more we’d converge. But the opposite happened, we diverged. The art unfolded differently for each of us.

It was such a clear reminder that our lived experiences shape what we notice, how we interpret, and what moves us.

2. People wanted to connect, with the art and each other.
More than 20 of the 26 attendees stayed after the art viewing, gathering at the MARKET to talk, laugh, and share takeaways. That blew me away. We moved up to Seattle two years ago and I’m still getting to know my new home but this felt deeply communal in a beautifully unexpected way. I assumed folks would drift off after the art-viewing but instead, the shared experience created something worth lingering for. People wanted to stay.

3. The vibe was genuinely kind.
Networking events are awkward but this was different. I could tell some folks felt anxious or uncertain but people showed up with open minds.

There was something disarming about the format. No pitches. No small talk. Just attention, presence, and an invitation to be curious. It didn’t feel like a networking event. It felt human.

4. Slow looking really changed our state.
One person mentioned at the end that she couldn’t focus at first. Her mind was racing. She wanted to move on after a minute. But then she started to settle and by the end of the first painting, she was present.

Another person noticed that someone in our group was fidgety and tense at the start but was visibly relaxed by the end. I felt that too. Like my body had slowed to meet my gaze. The longer we looked, the more the art gave us back.

5. Our attention had ripple effects.
As our small groups paused in front of pieces of artwork, something unexpected happened: strangers began to gather near us. They looked from the painting to us and back again, curious about what had captured our attention for so long.

Our stillness seemed to signal that these pieces were worth an extra-long look. That quiet attention drew people in. It was a beautiful reminder that focus is contagious and that how we engage with the world can invite others to do the same.

Thanks again for the inspiration and for building such a powerful global movement. It was an honor to be part of it.

– Ashley Christensen

P.S. Here’s the Never Search Alone website.

Art, Community, and the Job Search: A New Movement Begins

Posted on May 23, 2025 by Phyl Terry

A new kind of partnership is taking shape — one that connects art and the job search in a powerful way.

Slow Art Day and Never Search Alone are working together to support both museums and job seekers.

Why this partnership matters:

For museums: It brings in new and more diverse visitors — something many are working hard to do.
For job seekers: It creates a space to pause, reflect, and feel connected during what can be a very isolating time.

On Monday, May 19, 2025, Never Search Alone members Stuart Ridgway and Caitlin Thistle hosted one of these special events at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Forty job seekers took part.

They started outside the museum (see photos below), then split into groups of four. Each group moved through the galleries together. One person at a time picked a piece of art. Everyone looked at it slowly — for ten minutes — then they talked about what they saw.

Afterward, everyone met back in the courtyard. They kept talking for hours — forming new friendships and reconnecting with something often lost in the job search: the simple, human experience of looking at art and being with others.

Caitlin, pictured in the left foreground of the group photo above, and Stuart both reported that the group left feeling energized and connected — lifted by the simple yet profound act of looking at art together.

Because the participants meet outside the museums, and break up into groups of four, and buy their own tickets, this is a scalable program that also doesn’t involve complicated group tour arrangements with museums. 50 or 100 job seekers just meet up, get divided into groups of 4, and go slow looking.

I hosted recent events as well at the Brooklyn Museum, with 50 participants, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art where more than 120 Never Search Alone members came together.

Below are photos from the Metropolitan Museum of Art outing.

Already, Never Search Alone members around the country are beginning to plan more events including one coming up at the Seattle Art Museum (more on that in a separate post).

Stay tuned. This is only the beginning.

– Phyl, Ashley, Johanna, and Jessica Jane

P.S. More information about Never Search Alone can be found at Phyl.org.

Daylong Celebration at Yellowstone Art Museum

Posted on April 1, 2025 by Phyl Terry

For the 15th anniversary year of Slow Art Day, the Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM), Montana’s largest contemporary art museum, will host its first event this Saturday, April 5, 2025 at the same time as hundreds of museums and galleries around the world.

And they are going all out with a full day of activities designed to encourage visitors to experience art slowly and mindfully.

The festivities begin with yoga at the YAM from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., featuring a unique session that integrates slow observation of art in the museum’s Murdock Gallery.

At 11:30 a.m., Krista Leigh Pasini, owner of Rain Soul Studio and former YAM Artist-in-Residence, will lead a guided meditation in the museum’s newest exhibition, “Tyler Joseph Krasowski: Everything Becomes Something.” Krista will conduct another meditation session later in the afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m.

Throughout the day, local artists known as the Copyists will paint selected works by Gennie DeWeese from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and again from 1 to 4 p.m. Additionally, the Billings Urban Sketchers will be actively sketching around the museum campus.

Museum admission and all Slow Art Day activities are free and open to the public. No registration is required.

We are happy to welcome the Yellowstone Art Museum to Slow Art Day and look forward to hearing to getting a report on their first event.

Best,

– Phyl

P.S. The 15th anniversary Slow Art Day is coming up this Saturday, April 5, 2025 – with hundreds of museums, galleries, churches, sculpture parks and other venues – be sure to register your event if you have not yet done so.

Slow Art Day en Plein Air in Cheshire, England

Posted on April 1, 2025 by Phyl Terry

The 15th anniversary Slow Art Day is coming up this Saturday, April 5 – with hundreds of museums, galleries, churches, sculpture parks and other venues (be sure to register your museum, gallery, church, hospital, sculpture garden or other venue).

One location this year will be en plein air so to speak – in a hectic shopping center – hosted by the West Cheshire Museums in England.

They are bringing art outside to the heart of the city center and thereby making both the art and the art of slow looking more accessible.

Museum staff and community groups (including their dementia-inclusive Meet and Make group) have set questions for the public to encourage a slower look at the images.

They have chosen three art works out of their multiple galleries to bring to the Grosvenor Shopping Centre in Chester. The art they have chosen depict the city in different eras of its development – early 18th century (first image below), the Victorian era (second image below), and 2017.

The West Cheshire Museums are a diverse group of museums, which includes Grovesnor Museum, and other locations like a working watermill and a restored salt production site. Their collections cover a large slice of Cheshire’s history and tell the stories of the area’s people and places, from prehistoric times to the present day.

The West Cheshire Museums have been celebrating Slow Art Day since 2017 and we are happy to welcome them back for our 15th anniversary year – especially with their program to bring art out to the people.

– Phyl

P.S. We are proud this is now the 15th anniversary of Slow Art Day – the movement has grown and we continue to be delighted by the creative and innovative ways that museums, galleries, churches, hospitals and other venues choose to celebrate this day dedicated to looking at and loving art.

House of European History Slow Art Day 2025

Posted on March 28, 2025 by Phyl Terry

Slow Art Day 2025 is coming up April 5 – with hundreds of museums, galleries, churches, sculpture parks and other venues (be sure to register your museum, gallery, church, hospital, sculpture garden or other venue).

One of these locations this year will be The House of European History in Brussels, which is focusing on “Our Family Garden” by Smirna Kulenović, a citizen-led photographic project designed to heal collective trauma from the Bosnian War.

And we are happy to report that their Slow Art Day event will launch Slow Looking Saturday, a monthly guided experience that will focus on a different image from the exhibition, examining topics such as commemorations, historical re-enactments, and personal legacies.

These sessions will continue monthly through the end of the exhibit in November 2026.

We at Slow Art Day love seeing this.

Our goal since day one has been to inspire museums and other venues not only to participate in the annual event, but to create year-round programming that helps visitors slow down.

We’ll note that The House of European History worked with Claire Bown to develop this program. Claire is author of The Art Engager: Reimagining Guided Experiences in Museums.

We are glad to see the House of European History’s year-round commitment to Slow Art Day and look forward to getting updates on their progress.

Have a great Slow Art Day 2025.

Best,

– Phyl

P.S. Slow Art Day 2025 is coming up – be sure to register your museum, gallery, church, hospital, sculpture garden or other venue.

Haliburton’s Rails End Gallery Hosts Again in 2024

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Johanna Bokedal

For their 4th Slow Art Day, held in 2024, Rails End Gallery and Arts Center in Haliburton, Canada, invited visitors to look slowly at art from their annual local artist exhibition and then vote for their favorite.

Voting station at the Slow Art Day event

Wendy Wood, Not all dreams are happy ones, acrylic on canvas, 2024

David Douglas, Eurydice Hunting Antlers, found art assemblage, 2024

Gregor Gillespie, Unscheduled Departure, wood and stone, 2024

Slow Art Day coincided with the final day of their annual exhibition, making the Slow Art Day event their finale.

For Slow Art Day 2024, staff at the Gallery prepared cards with leading questions that visitors could reference while they looked.

A magnifying glass was also provided to visitors to take a (literal) close look at the art. Ahead of time, each artist had been asked to write a statement which was placed in a binder. Much to the surprise of the Gallery staff, one mother who took part in the event even read aloud from the binder for her children.

Note that Rails End Gallery is a registered nonprofit with an active and arts-minded volunteer community.

Many large museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Gallery of Toronto (Canada’s largest museum) lead the Slow Art Day movement, but we also have a growing number of smaller locations like Rails End Gallery.

We look forward to seeing whatever Rails End Gallery and Arts Center come up with for Slow Art Day this year.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with events at Rails End Gallery and Arts Center through their Instagram

Slow Looking and Dance at the University of Navarra’s Museum

Posted on March 11, 2025 by Johanna Bokedal

For their second Slow Art Day, the University of Navarra’s Museum located in Pamplona, Spain invited visitors to look slowly at “De este paraíso” (“Of this paradise”), 1969, by Manolo Millares. Present at the event were also a professional dancer and a choreographer for a body expression session.

Visitors looking slowly at De este paraíso” (“Of this paradise”), by Manolo Millares. Photo by Manuel Castells.

De este paraíso” (“Of this paradise”), by Manolo Millares. Photo by Manuel Castells.

Ahead of Slow Art Day, the event was published to the Museum’s website, and an invitation newsletter was sent to subscribers.

The Slow Art Day session on April 13 took place from 5 to 7 p.m. It was free and there were 20 places available. Between 5 to 6 pm, all participants first looked slowly at the artwork together, followed by a discussion.

From 6 to 7 pm the group moved into another room for the body expression workshop. It was led by the dancer and choreographer Itsaso Álvarez Cano, and visitors were invited to respond to the artwork through dance (Unfortunately there are no pictures from this part of the event).

At Slow Art Day HQ we love the inclusion of the body expression session. We experience art with several of the senses, and moving our bodies seems like a perfect way to extend slow looking into an embodied response.

We can’t wait to see what the Museum at the University of Navarra comes up with for Slow Art Day this year.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Slow Art Day 2025 is coming up on April 5. If you have not done so, please register your museum, gallery, church, sculpture park or movie theater here: https://www.slowartday.com/be-a-host/

P.P.S. Stay up to date with the Museum at the University of Navarra through their Instagram or Facebook.

Bloomington Citywide Slow Art Day

Posted on March 10, 2025 by Johanna Bokedal

For their 5th Slow Art Day, Eaton Studio Gallery in Bloomington, IL., spearhead another citywide Slow Art Day in 2024, and as one of the *18* locations, invited participants to a sip-n-view followed by a conversation with artist Herb Eaton.

Participants slow looking and engaging with artist Herb Eaton

Herb Eaton with Slow Art Day participants

“Scribbler’s Memorial” Bronze & Stainless by Herb Eaton

Slow Art Day has become a prominent force across Bloomington during the past few years, and Pamela Eaton, who has spearheaded the citywide Slow Art Day, told us that the whole multi-venue celebration has been transformative for art in Bloomington.

“Collaborating with the other artists and galleries in our community for Slow Art Day has given our local art scene more visibility and we are now attracting more local and out of town visitors to our art locations.”

Pamela Eaton

The citywide event received a promotion grant to help cover the cost of printing promotional materials, and Eaton Gallery itself received an Illinois Tourism grant to promote the Art Trail on Route 66 for Slow Art Day.

To conclude the festivities, all Slow Art Day goers across the 18-venue city-wide Slow Art Day event were invited to a closing reception with a prize giveaway at The Hangar Art Company from 2 to 4 p.m. in Downtown Bloomington.

At Slow Art Day HQ we have been delighted to follow the events by Eaton Studio Gallery since they joined the Slow Art Day movement during the Covid19 Pandemic. From designing a drive-by exhibition in 2020 to now leading a city-wide phenomenon — we can’t wait to see how Slow Art Day grows in Bloomington during the years to come.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

Mason City, IL, Hosts City-Wide Slow Art Day

Posted on March 8, 2025 by Johanna Bokedal

For their first city-wide Slow Art Day, the town of Mason City, Illinois lined up three venues to host artwork events for Slow Art Day: the public library, Reimagine Mason City Foundation, and the Arlee Theater.

All three are local nonprofits who are actively involved in youth services and the arts. Even though Mason City is not large enough to need a stop light (with a population of 2500), they still make sure to celebrate local artists. This year’s featured works included pieces from local artists who have passed on, as well as works from four other Central Illinois artists with various ties to Mason City. Most of the entries were paintings, with one sculpture.

This year’s local artworks were:

Unknown titled piece by Andrea Maxson
“Colorful Flowers” by the late Helen Kim
Two untitled pieces by Anastasia Neumann
“Protection” and “Old Warrior” by Rick Kehl
Unknown titled piece by the late Mary Price
Unknown titled piece by the late Mary K. Mangold
“Arcturian Landscape Study in Aluminum” by Paige Price

“Arcturian Landscape Study in Aluminum” by Paige Price

On Slow Art Day, the artworks were divided across the three selected locations, and tips for looking at art slowly were provided at each venue.

The public library showed their pieces in a special exhibit.
The Reimagine Mason City Foundation hosted a pop-up coffee shop where their works were displayed.
And lastly, the Arlee Theater projected digital versions of all of the works onto the big screen prior to the evening’s show (we have seen several theaters participate over the years, and love this type of venue for slow looking!).

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love to see citywide events – and especially appreciate smaller towns who come together to celebrate the day. We also hope to see more movie theaters join the Slow Art Day movement.

We look forward to seeing what Mason City comes up with for Slow Art Day in 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Slow Art Day 2025 is coming up on April 5. If you have not done so, please register your museum, gallery, church, sculpture park or movie theater here: https://www.slowartday.com/be-a-host/

McMichael Canadian Art Collection Hosts First Slow Art Day

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Johanna Bokedal

For their first Slow Art Day, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Canada, organized a slow looking and sketching event.

Visitors were encouraged to walk around the museum and look slowly at their chosen works of art. Guided tours were canceled for Slow Art Day in order for participants to experience the art slowly and on their own terms – excellent!

McMichael Collection Slow Art Day image from their social media post, advertising the event.

Slow looking participants listening to the introduction in the Founder’s Lounge.

To introduce the concept of slow looking, visitors were also invited to a short explanation followed by a 15 minute self-guided sketching activity in front of an artwork of their choice. The sessions were held in the Founder’s Lounge at the top of the hour during three time-slots. All sketching materials were provided, and visitors were given stools to place in front of their chosen artwork.

Images of participants slow looking and sketching were shared to social media.

Participant sketching in front of their chosen artwork.

We love this simple, creative design and encourage other museums to consider copying some of what the McMichael Canadian Art Collection did for 2024.

And we look forward to what they come up with for April 2025!

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Slow Art Day 2025 is coming up on April 5. If you have not done so, please register your museum, gallery, church, sculpture park here: https://www.slowartday.com/be-a-host/

P.P.S. Stay up to date with other events at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection through their Instagram and Facebook.