Tag Archives: Route 66

Illinois Hosts First Region-Wide Slow Art Day in the World

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Slow Art Day 2026 is just over a week away – and big news – BN Artists, a team of artists in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, have now expanded their pioneering citywide event to become the first region-wide celebration anywhere in the world. Wow.

Aligned with the 100th anniversary of Route 66, Slow Art Day on Route 66 will be a Central Illinois region-wide series of events created by BN Artists along with a grassroots coalition of museums, libraries, small business owners, and cultural leaders, and with marketing support from Visit Bloomington-Normal and the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway. Together, they have set up a distributed, community-driven arts experience spanning more than 20 locations across several cities in Central Illinois (see below my signature for links to galleries, museums, libraries and other locations).

Pamala Eaton, who started the Slow Art Day movement in Bloomington when she launched the first citywide event in 2022, says this initiative has helped grow not just the arts community, but the region as a whole. “Collaborating with artists, galleries, and businesses across our community for Slow Art Day has increased visibility for the local art scene and is now attracting more local and out-of-town visitors to our art locations and everything else our towns offer.” Eaton is a gallerist and owner of Herb Eaton Studio & Gallery.

Here is the wonderful Slow Art Day on Route 66 poster –

The event will begin with a Preview Night on Friday, April 3 (First Friday), where visitors can explore downtown Bloomington galleries and meet local artists. The main Slow Art Day will then take place on Saturday, April 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by a closing reception from 2:30 to 5 p.m. at Herb Eaton Studio & Gallery. Additional programming will continue throughout the weekend and beyond, including a special slow looking and art making experience on Sunday, April 12 at 410 Sculpture Park in partnership with the Bloomington Public Library.

The connection to Route 66 adds a wonderful dimension. Long celebrated as part of the American experience, Route 66 represents movement, exploration, and the stories we carry across distance. Slow Art Day gently inverts that idea — inviting people not to pass through, but to pause, to look closely, and to build connection where they are.

As local arts educator Hannah Johnson noted, slow looking and slow making are “transformative acts in our exceedingly expeditious world.” That spirit is evident throughout the region — from galleries and museums to libraries, sculpture parks, and public spaces.

Participants will be encouraged to explore multiple locations, collect stamps in the Art Scene in McLean County Passport, and experience the diversity of artistic expression across Central Illinois. The result will be not just a series of events, but a shared regional experience built on attention, curiosity, and community.

We at Slow Art Day HQ are blown away by how Janean Baird, Pamala Eaton, BN Artists, and their many partners continue to lead the way in growing the Slow Art Day movement. Among other things, they have inspired others around the world to launch citywide events. In 2025, Constanza Ontiveros Valdés — an art writer and cultural project leader in Mexico City – was inspired by BN Artisits to start the first Mexico City citywide. That was so successful that this year, Ontiveros Valdés has built a volunteer team, a website and organized a coalition of 55+ museums, galleries and other venues. Wow! And not to be outdone by his northern neighbor, Mauricio Avila Morales is now organizing the first citywide in Bogotá, Colombia (more on that soon).

Happy Slow Art Day (almost) to everyone around the world. We need more art and community in this divisive, topsy-turvy world – and thanks to many of you we will have that.

Best,

Phyl

P.S. Slow Art Day 2026 is coming up April 11 – register your museum, gallery, church, sculpture park or movie theater for 2026, if you have not yet done so.

The Central Illinois Participating Galleries, Museums, Libraries, Public Art spaces, and Sculpture Parks

410 Sculpture Park — 410 S. Madison St., Bloomington, IL
Large-scale works created from discarded industrial materials. Open daily. Special slow looking + artmaking program on Sunday, April 12 (registration required).

Art Vortex Studio — 101 W. Monroe St., Suite 210, Bloomington, IL
Photography, sculpture, and collage. Open April 3 and April 11.

Beluga Press Art Gallery — 313 N. Main St., Bloomington, IL
Photographic techniques. Open April 3 and April 11.

Bloomington Public Library — 205 E. Olive St., Bloomington, IL
Featured local artists on display. Co-host of April 12 sculpture park program.

City of Lexington — 329 W. Main St., Lexington, IL
Public art installations and Bloom on Main community event.

Herb Eaton Studio & Gallery — 411 N. Center St., Bloomington, IL
Historic Route 66 gallery and closing reception site.

Illinois Art Station — 101 East Vernon Ave., Normal, IL
Free Fourth Saturday artmaking event on April 25.

Inside Out: Accessible Art — 200 W. Monroe St., Bloomington, IL
Artists available to discuss their work.

Jan Brandt Gallery — 418 N. Main St., Bloomington, IL
Circus-themed paintings inspired by local history.

J.Y. Langston Studio & Gallery — 103 W. Monroe St., Bloomington, IL
Open studio and gallery.

Joann Goetzinger Studio Gallery — 313 N. Main St., Bloomington, IL
Group exhibition of regional artists.

Main Gallery 404 — 404 N. Main St., Bloomington, IL
Featured works with slow looking prompts.

Main Street Yoga / Von Champs Boutique — 402 N. Main St., Bloomington, IL
Student exhibition and pop-up programming.

Mandy Roeing Fine Art — 105-A W. Monroe St., Bloomington, IL
Soft pastel landscapes and portraits.

McLean County Arts Center — 601 N. East St., Bloomington, IL
Regional Emerging Artist Exhibition and portrait workshop.

McLean County Museum of History — 200 N. Main St., Bloomington, IL
Exhibition of Robert Cumpston’s metal sculptures.

Normal Public Library — 206 W. College Ave., Normal, IL
“Plant Matter” exhibition exploring nature and community.

Second Presbyterian Church — 404 N. Prairie St., Bloomington, IL
“What’s So Good About Good Friday?” exhibition.

Shake It Up Cocktail Lounge & Eatery — 105 W. Front St., Bloomington, IL
Photography exhibition in a social setting.

The Painted Wraith Curiosity Shoppe — 106 W. Monroe St., Bloomington, IL
Original artwork and Route 66-inspired pieces.

The Pharmacy Gallery & Art Space — 623 E. Adams St., Springfield, IL
Route 66-themed exhibition of drawings and photography.

Threshold to Hope — 200 W. Monroe St., Bloomington, IL
Art offerings and special pricing.

University Galleries of Illinois State University — 11 Uptown Circle, Normal, IL
Sensory-friendly viewing and all-ages artmaking workshop.

Bloomington Citywide Slow Art Day

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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.

Exterior of the Studio Gallery

Participants slow looking and engaging with artist Herb Eaton

Herb Eaton with Slow Art Day participants

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

Assorted artworks 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

Bloomington Plans *20* Citywide Venues

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For the 15th annual Slow Art Day coming up in less than two weeks, Bloomington, Illinois, the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the Illinois Route 66 Commission and others (see poster below) have organized under the leadership of gallerist Pamala Eaton and others, more than 20 – that’s right, 20! – participating galleries and museums.

Pamala and her husband Herb launched the first Slow Art Day in Bloomington in the spring of 2020, at the height of the pandemic with a “Window Walk-By.” They placed art in their gallery window and asked people to walk, cycle, or drive slowly by and look. That initial creative effort during Covid has bloomed into what is now the largest citywide Slow Art Day in the world.

When I asked Pamala Eaton why she has put so much energy into spearheading the growth of Slow Art Day, she talked about her passion for art, which has taken root since her retirement from her first career as a teacher and physical education instructor. She now strongly believes that experiencing art, especially slowly, can be very powerful for everyone including the uninitiated. In other words, Eaton shares both the love of art *and* the spirit of radical inclusivity that guides so many of us.

That passion has also driven Eaton to build and extend the artist community in Bloomington as a way to grow Slow Art Day. In the early years of hosting, Eaton connected with artist Janean Baird, who hosted and then brought together the growing Slow Art Day movement with the historic Route 66 commission, which took up the effort and promoted it wider. Then another artist and gallerist, Santino Lamancusa, began to design the terrific posters (see above) and host after-events with artists and others thereby further growing the community.

Bit by bit, brick by brick, show by show, Eaton, Baird, Lamancusa and others grew Slow Art Day in Bloomington from one gallery in 2021, to nine in 2022, to 15 in 2023, and now 20 in 2024.

But there’s more.

Eaton and her colleagues in Bloomington have inspired other cities around the world, including much bigger cities (we were just contacted by one of Europe’s grandest cities about a coordinated citywide – more about that in the next week or so).

We hope you have a wonderful and slow 2024 art day wherever you are in the world – and that you take inspiration from how Eaton and the 20 galleries and museums in Bloomington have turned Slow Art Day into a citywide celebration.

– Phyl

P.S. If you have not yet registered your Slow Art Day with us, then go to this page.

P.P.S. Our Annual Report is out. Read it and get inspired!

Something Old, Something New at Angel Ambrose

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For their second Slow Art Day, Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio in Bloomington, Illinois invited visitors to consider the well known wedding rhyme “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue” as part of the city-wide Slow Art Day in this famous Route 66 town.

Angel invited visitors to her studio to look slowly at a selection of works that corresponded with the rhyme:

– Something Old: an “old” painting from Angel’s BFA show at Illinois State University

– Something New: a selection of new artworks by Angel

– Something Borrowed: an Ansel Adams photo on loan from a private collection

– Something Blue: a painting titled “Magnificent Blues,” on loan from the private collection of Wendy Knight Ives (pictured below).

Something Blue: “Magnificent Blues,” on loan from the collection of Wendy Knight Ives.
Something New: Artwork by Angel Ambrose

Angel also shared a slow looking activity on Facebook for online participants.

Give yourself 3-5 minutes of silence to focus on one piece of art. Think about these prompts as you view the selected art, (and answer them for yourself afterwards if you wish):

For your head (objective thought/intellect) you can consider any of the following:

  • What did you see? What decisions did you notice that Angel made in her painting—line, color, texture, form, repetition, contrast, etc? Was there a color scheme/theme apparent? Notice the paint—can you see individual brushstrokes, or a smooth surface, or perhaps another tool was used to apply the paint? How was movement used in the artwork? Was the piece representational, abstracted, or somewhere between? Why do you think Angel chose this format?

For your heart (feelings/emotions), consider the following:

  • How did you feel when you looked at the work? Did the colors evoke any emotions? What did these feelings make you think about? Did your mood change after looking at the artwork? Did you experience any personal significance to the piece?”

Angel reported that the event was a success, with many new visitors and lots of great conversations.

At Slow Art Day HQ we love how this and the other galleries in Bloomington have been pioneering citywide events. (Note: rumors are that a state-wide Slow Art Day is now being considered in Illinois!)

Best,

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl