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Korea’s First Slow Art Day at Choi Sunu House 

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Ran Hee, the manager of the Choi Sunu House Memorial Museum in Seoul, Korea, hosted their (and Korea’s) first Slow Art Day on April 15 with the theme “Neurim & Nurim (느림 그리고 누림)”, which translates to “Slow and Enjoy”.

The event was jointly organized by the National Trust Cultural Heritage Foundation and Ewha Womans University Graduate School of Education participants majoring in art education, Kim Han-sol, Han Yu-jin, and Heo Bona.

Choi Sunu (1916~1984) was an eminent art historian and museum professional who served as the fourth director of the National Museum of Korea until his death. He devoted his life to define and propagate the beauty of Korean art and architecture through exhibitions and writings. The Choi Sunu House, where he lived from 1976 to 1984, is an expression of his aesthetics of simplicity and elegance, and has been open to the public since 2004.

Ran Hee and team created a three-part event:

First, curator Song Ji-young gave participants an introduction to Choi Sunu and his house.

Next, Bona Heo, Ewha Womans University graduate student, Yoo Jin-han, and Hansol Kim handed out question cards with prompts for slow looking (and talked about the slow looking movement).

Last, Professor Han Ju-yeon hosted a video viewing session and discussion with attendees (scroll down to see photos, as well as audio and video excerpts).

Visitors listening to the introduction of the Slow Art Day event.
Curator Song Ji-young introduces the event.
Participant contemplating the question cards.
Flyer for the event.

The hosts prepared a few memorable excerpts from Choi Sunu’s works alongside a video. Participants were also encouraged to write a short note on postcards about their experience.

Slow Art Day experience cards.

Below are a few links to audio and text excerpts of Choi’s works (in Korean): 

Choi Sunu, “Fruits More Beautiful than Flowers”
Choi Sunu, “The Empty Branch of Mid-Winter” 
Choi Sunu, “Light Green Radish” 

We at HQ are glad to welcome the first Korean museum to the slow art movement, and look forward to seeing what the Choi Sunu House designs for Slow Art Day 2024.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. You can also follow Choi Sunu House on Instagram.

Ur Mara Museoa Shows All of Us How to Celebrate Art

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Ur Mara Museoa, located in Gipuzkoa, Spain, held its seventh Slow Art Day this year.

This Basque museum has been a real leader in the slow looking movement showing all of us how to celebrate via daylong events that combine art, food, music, and dance (below is a video from 2019 showing one of their events).

This year’s hosts Koldobika Jauregi and Elena Cajaraville featured work from six artists including Aitor Irulegi, Aihnoa Goenaga, Koldobika Juaregi, Juan Chillida, Julia Leigh, and Maria Giró.

During the event, each artist was given a chance to discuss their work with the attendees (see below for photos of the art as well as photos of participants).

Juan Chillida, Constelaciones
Juan Kruz Igerabide and Koldobika Jauregi, Anaforak
Maria Giró and Julia Leight, La memòria dels dits
Aitor Irulegi, Euria
Ainhoa Goenaga, Isilune

Afterwords food was shared at a community table.

We can’t wait to see what this wonderful and creative group comes up with for next year.

– Robin, Ashley, Phyl, Johanna, Jessica Jane

P.S. Ur Mara Museoa can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Vimeo.

Open-Air Slow Art at Europos Parkas

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For their third Slow Art Day, Europos Parkas, or the “Open-air Museum of the Center of Europe”, held an in-person event hosted by Lina Karosienė of the European Park, and Karen Vanhercke and Justina Kaminskaite of Easel World, an agency focused on connecting people through art.

Located in the geographical center of Europe, near Vilnius, Lithuania, the European Park is an outdoor museum of modern and contemporary art that has been operating since 1991.

Location of Europos Parkas

Their Slow Art Day featured sculptural works by Marius Zavadskis and Adomas Jacovskis, seen below.

Photography courtesy of Gintare Užtupytė
Photography courtesy of Gintare Užtupytė
Marius Zavadskis, Carousal, Photography courtesy of Gytis Juodėnas
Adomas Jacovskis, Lying Head, Photography courtesy of Gytis Juodėnas
Photography courtesy of Gintare Užtupytė

We love sculpture parks and would have enjoyed slowly walking around and inside some of these sculptures.

Participants of the Slow Art Day seemed to love it too – and reported that slowing down changed their relationship to the park and to the art. “Earlier I just saw this park as the place full of objects, and now I see the artworks in a whole new light,” said one. Yes!

The team at European Park also produces year-round Slow Art programming and has created a special route through the park that encourages participants to look at art (and nature) slowly.

This beautiful video in Lithuanian (below) on their YouTube channel gives an idea of how they have done this.

It’s great to have this central European art park participating, especially during this difficult time for the region. We look forward to seeing what they come up with for their fourth Slow Art Day.

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

P.S. You can visit European Park’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.

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

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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.

Holding Hands with St. Vincent de Paul in Melbourne, Australia

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For their first Slow Art Day, Monique Silk and her colleagues at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, created a series of Slow Art Cards in sets of five so both patients and visitors could participate. The cards utilized three different art works from their art collection and a photo from their archives. On the back of the card, they included a series of instructions on ways to look at the art works slowly.

The prompts they used are:

  1. Look: Give yourself a few minutes to look all over the art work. Let your eyes wander to all corners of the image, top to bottom and left to right.
  2. Observe: Notice the colors, shapes, objects, textures and markings on the surface of the art work. Where do your eyes focus?
  3. Feel: What words come to mind about this art work? How do you feel looking at this art work? Does it remind you of anything?
  4. Share: Share your experience of looking at the artwork with someone and post an image of the work online with a word of reflection and hashtag #slowartday2022
Ben Quilty, Torana on Flinders, 2002, oil on canvas, photo courtesy of Monique Silk
St. Vincent’s Hospital Diet Kitchen c. 1952, Clinical Photography Department Collection, SVHM Archives, photo courtesy of Monique Silk
Sarah Metzner, Country Whispers to Us in Many Languages, 2021, oil paint and pastel on paper, photo courtesy of Monique Silk
Penny Long, Pathway, 2011, oil on canvas, photo courtesy of Monique Silk

Cards were distributed to various hospital departments to share with patients and visitors on Slow Art Day. The response from the staff to the cards was very positive.

Monique also a slow art activity in the hospital courtyard. This activity invited people to sit and slowly look at their statue of St Vincent de Paul. They even invited people to come and hold his hands and interact with the sculpture directly. While people were a bit shy when sitting with the sculpture, the hosts gave people space to interact without feeling as though they were being directly observed.

St. Vincent de Paul, by Australian sculptor Peter Corlett, photo courtesy of Monique Silk

One patient was wheeled out to the courtyard to be with the sculpture of St. Vincent and her caregiver said “this was the highlight of her day”. Another staff member said they had never noticed the sculpture before and thanked the hosts for giving them the opportunity to “feel” the presence of St. Vincent.

The pastoral care staff decided that the cards can be used on an ongoing basis and one chaplain said that:

“It’s a joy to offer the beautiful slow art cards to patients. There has been gratitude expressed from those who received your wonderful gifts. Such a great initiative!”

After the events, the hosts realized that they should have included a First Nations art work, which they plan to do for Slow Art Day 2023.

We at Slow Art Day are so happy that St. Vincent’s in Melbourne decided to celebrate Slow Art Day 2022 with patients and visitors. Perhaps, this is the beginning of a trend of many more hospitals around the world joining the slow looking movement, and bringing the power of learning to look at and love art to patients, visitors, and staff. This is a true Mitzvah.

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

A Slow Look at the Trinity with MIT List Visual Arts Center

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For their 7th Slow Art Day, the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, MA, invited visitors to a slow looking session focused on “Trinity” (Beverly Pepper, 1971), a sculpture from their Public Art Collection.

The event was organized and led by Elizabeth Ponce, Public Programs Coordinator, and Fatima Nasir Abbasi, MIT List Tour Guide.

Beverly Pepper, Trinity, 1971, Cor-Ten steel, 36 x 276 x 288 in. (91.4 x 701 x 731.5 cm), Gift of the Sonnabend Foundation, Photo by Chuck Mayer. 

On the day, participants met as a group and walked over to the sculpture. They were invited to look slowly at the sculpture for 10-15 minutes, and use that time to write, sketch or simply think about the artwork. Following this, the group shared their thoughts with each other.

The group was given the following prompts for the session. (Note: we encourage museum educators to consider copying these for slow looking events featuring sculpture.)

  • Stare at the piece.
  • When your mind begins to wander, refocus on the work.
  • What are your thoughts, experiences, feelings?
  • Consider: Form and shape, scale, color, installation space, concept, emotion, craft, design.
  • Change your perspective.
  • Move around, and observe this sculpture from a different angle.
  • Get close and examine the surface, the construction, and composition.
  • Back up and consider the work in its environment.

Pepper’s sculptures are known to touch on a wide range of themes – including religion, sexuality and emotion. This sculpture was originally titled Dunes I, which evokes images of the desert. The altered title allows viewers to explore a wider range of connotations, including the idea of religious or spiritual unity.

We at the Slow Art Day HQ team always like to see sculpture featured in slow looking events. The three-dimensionality allows participants to move around and engage the artwork from a wide range of perspectives. Further, because scuplture provides so many angles it enhances the way that slow looking connects us not only with art but with ourselves.

We look forward to what the MIT List Visual Arts Center comes up with for their 8th Slow Art Day in 2023.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane and Phyl

PS. Stay updated with events at the MIT List Visual Arts Center through their Instagram and Facebook pages.

Exploring Grief in Art at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens

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For their fourth Slow Art Day, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens invited guests to slow down and enjoy the immersive indoor and outdoor mixed media art environment created by artist Isaiah Zagar. The winding spaces are covered in mosaics created with Zagar’s handmade tiles and found objects, such as folk art, bottles, bike wheels, and mirrors.

Second level of the outside sculpture garden, featuring Isaiah Zagar’s Kohler tiles. Photo by Allison Boyle, Events & Marketing Manager.

Zagar’s art can also be seen on public walls throughout the south Philadelphia community, where he has been restoring and beautifying public spaces since the 1960s.

Mosiac building exterior by Isaiah Zagar on South St, Philadelphia. Photo by Ashley Moran, Slow Art Day Editor.

After slowing down to take in the details of the space, Samantha Eusebio, Museum Educator, led a discussion on a particular section of the outdoor sculpture garden that included several large handmade tiles that Zagar made during a residency he held at the Kohler company in Wisconsin from September to November, 2001.

Samantha Eusebio and Slow Art Day participants. Photo by Ashley Moran, Slow Art Day Editor.

Samantha first asked the group of 15 participants to share themes that they noticed emerging within the tiles. She then shared a video interview of Zagar talking about his experience at Kohler.

After the video, Samantha led a discussion about Zagar’s influences for the large tiles, which happened to be the events of 911 that occurred while he was in his residency at Kohler. Being raised in Brooklyn, NY, Zagar was heavily influenced by the tragedy, and his tiles include images of airplanes and buildings. Samantha continued the discussion with the group on different ways individuals deal with grief and trauma – through art, reading, exercise, or even just slowing down.

Slow Art Day participants looking slowly at Isaiah Zagar’s large Kohler tiles. Photo by Ashley Moran.
Large Tile Mosaics with Airplane Motifs by Isaiah Zagar. Photo by Ashley Moran.

Large Tile Mosaics with Airplane Motifs by Isaiah Zagar. Photo by Ashley Moran.

I had the pleasure of attending this Slow Art Day event, and it was eye opening. Even though I know that slowing down helps you see things that you are otherwise blind to, and even though I’m a longtime Slow Art Day volunteer who teaches many others about the power of slowing down to really see, I was still surprised by how much I saw that I had never seen before on multiple previous visits to The Magic Gardens. This is why Slow Art Day is an experiential program, and not primarily a theoretical one. You can understand the theory behind slow looking, but that doesn’t mean that you can see until you really slow down.

Ashley Moran, Slow Art Day Editor, immersing in the mosaicked space.

It truly is amazing what you can experience if you take the time to slow down.

We at Slow Art Day HQ look forward to visiting Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens while on our tour this summer of NYC and Philadelphia, and we can’t wait to see what they share for Slow Art Day 2023.

Ashley

Slow Art Day Bikeride to Sarehole Mill

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To celebrate Slow Art Day 2021 when museums were locked down in England, artist Jo Essen, based in Birmingham, UK, organized a slow looking bike ride to Sarehole Mill.

The historical mill, today a museum and bakery, is well-known for its connection with J. R. R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He once lived across the road from the Mill, and it inspired his writings about Middle-earth.

Picture from the surroundings of Birmingham. Photo credits: Jo Essen.
Picture of nature. Photo credits: Jo Essen.

Essen shared an online video from the bike ride, and encouraged others in the pandemic lockdown to get out and do some slow looking. “It was wonderful to be involved in slow looking even when we were not able to visit museums,” said Jo Essen.

So, while the British Museum, Tate Modern, the Norton Simon Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, and many other large museums ran virtual (or in-person events), and while a number of smaller museums and galleries also ran Slow Art Day sessions, 2021 also included Jo Essen and her family looking slowly at nature and architecture.

Love that!

This report is a fitting final post for 2021, especially as we and the world struggle through yet another wave of the coronavirus. (Note: you can read all of our 2021 published reports, or wait for our 2021 annual report to be published in February of 2022.)

We hope you have a wonderful new year wherever you are in the world. And perhaps take some inspiration from Essen and go out and do some slow looking at nature, architecture, public art, or in museums and galleries, if they are open in your area.

Stay safe and healthy and get ready for yet another year of building the slow looking movement.

With love,

Johanna, Jessica, Ashley, and Phyl

Slow Art Looking and Making at the Artichoke Gallery in South Africa

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For their 5th Slow Art Day, the Artichoke Gallery at MelonRouge Eatery in Magaliesburg, South Africa, organized an event featuring different art forms by three South African artists:

  • Handmade Damascus art knives by Bertie Rietveld
  • An oil painting by Evarné van Niekerk
  • A pen-drawn labyrinth artwork by Lorraine Reister 

Visitors were given a “Meet the Maker” bio of each artist, and were guided around the artworks by facalitator Hanolet Uys, himself an artist.

As part of the event, visitors were also given two blank canvases, acrylic paint, oil, and black permanent markers and were invite to create their own art.

Facilitator Hanolet Uys explaing Bertie’s process of making daggers.
Participant engaging with acrylic paint, oil, and black permanent markers.

Below are images of the featured artworks.

Bertie Rietveld. Apollo.

A section of the painting by Evarné van Niekerk. Oil on canvas.

Lorraine Reister. Wie is ek.

Participants engaging in discussion

Following the tour, participants discussed the artworks and artists around a table outside.

In their discussion of the art, participants reflected around the changed meaning of art in the context of a pandemic:

” The Pandemic made me look at art as a bare necessity and not as a ‘”luxury” as before”

Participant’s quote


“I started an art piece before the pandemic – and the outcome after a year was totally different than what I anticipated beforehand”

Participant’s quote

The Gallery, which has always been good at creating video artefacts of their event, produced a short TikTok video this year. We recommend that museum educators and other Slow Art Day designers watch it below:

TikTok video summarizing the Artichoke Gallery’s Slow Art Day.

We at Slow Art Day HQ are fans of the Artichoke Gallery and love the effort they put into designing their event every year.

We very much look forward to whatever they come up with in 2022.

Johanna, Jessica, Ashley, and Phyl

P.S. You can follow Artichoke Gallery’s updates on Facebook

Stop and Smell the Roses: Slow Art Drive-By at Eaton Gallery

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For their second Slow Art Day, The Eaton Gallery in Bloomington, Illinois, organized a “drive-by” exhibit in the Gallery’s window display, inviting the local community to slow down and enjoy floral still-life paintings by local artist Herb Eaton. 

Herb Eaton, Still Life with Grace. 3ft x 4 ft, oil on canvas.
Herb Eaton, Single Petal of a Rose. 24×18 oil on canvas board.

Pamela Eaton, Gallery owner, aims to make art more accessible in a relaxed setting, and provide a space to support local artists.

From the 10th to the 30th of April, the Gallery created a drive-by window exhibit for viewers to pause and look slowly at a selection of artworks. They were then invited to share their thoughts and reflections in a variety of ways: write a note and drop it in the Gallery’s mail slot, send an email, or leave a post on the Gallery’s Facebook page.

The exhibit got great press coverage from local news outlets, both last year and this year. An article by week.com includes a video interview with Pamela Eaton, where she explains that Slow Art Day is an opportunity for people to simultaneously develop an appreciation for art and local artists.

“We are so busy hurrying around. When you slow down and pay attention to your space and place you start to see more value in them. That’s probably one of the values of COVID, it’s slowed us all down.”

Pamela Eaton

Eaton Gallery’s press release

The Eaton Gallery received a lot of great feedback from participants:

Kind of makes you think of the beauty of life and the changes through the years. The petals are beautiful but life happens and the years change us, but the beauty still remains in our memories.

Viewer’s quote

I drove by today, slowly passing by in my car to admire A Single Petal of a Rose which I love more and more each time I see it.

Viewer’s quote

Walked by Saturday to enjoy the paintings in your window… peaceful and full of color.

Viewer’s quote



Looking forward to coming inside and seeing more of the art and the space.

Viewer’s quote



Beautiful work.

Viewer’s quote



Brightened up my walk downtown.

Viewer’s quote



The Eaton Gallery’s creative drive-by solution to sharing art with the local community during Covid19 has helped viewers and participants slow down and feel connected. At Slow Art Day HQ, we agree with Pamala Eaton: “When you slow down and pay attention to your space and place you start to see more value in them.”

We look forward to Eaton Gallery’s Slow Art Day in 2022.



Johanna, Jessica, Ashley, and Phyl