Tag Archives: self-guided

Cameron Art Museum Hosts Second Slow Art Day

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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.

Carol Rossi Hosts Community Slow Looking Experience at the de Young Museum in San Francisco

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For Slow Art Day 2025, yoga-based movement instructor Carol Rossi of Lobey Movement returned to Slow Art Day – she was a pioneer who helped launch the movement back in 2010 – and hosted her own slow-looking session at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, California. Drawing from her background in yoga and mindfulness, Rossi designed a self-guided Slow Art Day experience.

In preparation for the day, Rossi created and shared a dedicated Slow Art Day webpage that outlined simple viewing tips and a short guide to the artworks she selected. Her materials encouraged participants to spend extended time with each work, notice physical details and emotional responses, and resist the urge to move quickly. Rather than formal facilitation, the structure supported personal pacing and reflection, allowing participants to engage with the museum in a focused yet flexible way.

Rossi documented and reflected on the experience through LinkedIn and Instagram, sharing photographs, excerpts from her viewing guide, and personal observations about hosting Slow Art Day. These posts are great practical examples for others interested in creating their own Slow Art Day experiences to follow. Her approach shows how hosting can begin with clear intentions, simple prompts, and a willingness to invite others to slow down together.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we actively encourage this kind of individual-led design. Slow Art Day is not limited to institutions; anyone can host a slow-looking experience, whether as a yoga instructor, educator, designer, or community member. Resources like Carol Rossi’s website and posts offer concrete inspiration for those considering hosting their own event, much like other community-driven Slow Art Day efforts we have seen in recent years.

We thank Carol Rossi for her pioneering support of Slow Art Day, and for returning to work with us again. We look forward to seeing what she comes up with for Slow Art Day 2026.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

Slow Walking Video at Gorgas House Museum

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For Slow Art Day 2025, students at the University of Alabama participated in a project titled Walking In It, developed under the direction of Professor Sharony Green and presented in connection with the Gorgas House Museum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The project focused on an experimental video that encouraged people to notice walking and to think about it as something shaped by history and circumstance, not a simple experience that everyone can take for granted.

As part of the project, students enrolled in Professor Green’s Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 history courses contributed 30-second long videos of themselves walking through campus and around Tuscaloosa. These clips were combined into a single “digital quilt” bringing together repeated movement across shared spaces.

Gorgas House Museum on Slow Art Day.

The completed video was featured online and projected onto the exterior of the Gorgas House Museum on April 4, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The projection was designed as a come-and-go experience, allowing Slow Art Day participants and passersby to encounter the work throughout the day. The setting of the projection on Gorgas House, the campus’s oldest dwelling constructed in 1829, provided historical context for the project’s focus on movement and access.

Watch the video projection:

Additional components were coordinated by Sonya Harwood-Johnson, Director of the Gorgas House Museum. These included interpretive displays featuring nineteenth-century shoes and an interactive station where members of the campus community could decorate miniature boots produced with a 3D printer, inspired by a Mexican artist’s project.

In addition to the video projection, the Slow Art Day project included a campus-wide scavenger hunt. Participants were invited to move through campus using the scavenger hunt prompts, with a prize offered to those who completed the activity.

Students also created a short video previewing the event, offering viewers a sense of the site and project setup:

The project received coverage in The Crimson White – Gorgas House hosts The University of Alabama’s submission to global Slow Art Day – the University of Alabama’s student newspaper, which reported on the Gorgas House Museum’s participation in the global Slow Art Day initiative. Across digital platforms, the project reached a wide audience, with more than 1,100 views on Instagram and over 1,200 additional views and impressions across other social media channels.

Professory Sharony Green and students.

We thank Sharony Green, Sonya Harwood-Johnson, and the participating students for their innovative Slow Art Day events, and look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2026.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Read more about the project, Walking In It: An Experimental Video, on the Gorgas House Museum website. You can follow the Gorgas House Museum on Facebook and Instagram.

Multiple Paths To Slow Looking at Wellcome Collection

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For their fourth year participating in Slow Art Day, Wellcome Collection in London hosted a full day of guided and self-guided slow-looking experiences across the museum. Wellcome Collection is a free museum that explores human health through the intersections of art, medicine, and science. Building on the range of facilitated sessions introduced in previous years, the 2025 program offered visitors multiple ways to engage slowly with artworks, objects, and ideas.

The Wellcome Collection team led five guided slow-looking sessions, each facilitated by a different staff member and focused on a distinct body of work.

Isabelle Gapomo guided participants in close observation of a photograph by Marc Ferrez from the Hard Graft exhibition, titled ‘Escravos em terreiro de uma fazenda de café na região do Vale do Paraíba’ (c.1882), examining how plantation labor was depicted by early photographers and how those images are experienced today.

‘Escravos em terreiro de uma fazenda de café na região do Vale do Paraíba’ (c.1882). Marc Ferrez.

Griff Davies led a session centered on the dream-inspired paintings of Bryan Charnley, using the imagery to prompt discussion around mental health.

“The Stars Only Come Out at Night” by Bryan Charnley.
“Nail Schizophrene” by Bryan Charnley.

Sana Siddiqui reprised her popular session last year and used vintage food advertisements to evoke memory and sensory response.

In the Reading Room, Isabel Greenslade gathered participants around “Closing Neural Tube Dress,” a sculptural garment that encouraged reflection on abstraction.

Participants slow looking at the “Closing Neural Tube Dress“.

Jake Blackavar led a session that moved through multiple floors of the museum, selecting a sculpture, a video work, and a pair of paintings to explore how different media and gallery contexts shape the slow-looking experience.

“Washerwoman” by Shannon Alonzo.
“Orphans” (left) by Frederic Cayley Robinson.
“Orphans” (right) by Frederic Cayley Robinson.

In addition to the guided sessions, the museum designated a room as a Slow Art Day hub where tours began and visitors could drop in to learn more about the event. In this space, visitors were invited to practice slow looking independently using a rotating screen of images from Wellcome Collection’s holdings, which changed every ten minutes.

What a thoughtful and well-designed program. Wow.

We at Slow Art Day HQ thank Jake Blackavar and the entire Wellcome Collection team for continuing to lead the way in producing meaningful and multi-dimensional experiences.

We eagerly look forward to what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2026.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Follow Wellcome Collection on their Instagram and Facebook

Mindfulness and Slow Looking at the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation

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For their second Slow Art Day, the B&E Goulandris Foundation in Athens, Greece, invited all visitors to explore selected works from its permanent Collection and to take part in one or more of their three specially designed mindfulness activities.

On April 5th, 2025 all visitors were welcomed with a special printed slow looking guide (available in both English and Greek) at the Museum’s Reception Desk. This included information and instructions on how to practice slow looking, allowing them to fully engage with four carefully selected works from the permanent Collection:

  • “Laughing Man” by Camille Claudel [on the first floor]
  • “The Traveller” by Igor Mitoraj [on the second floor]
  • “Maria Callas no. 4” by Julian Schnabel [on the third floor]
  • “Untitled” by Alexis Akrithakis [on the fourth floor]

Visitors were encouraged to keep and reuse this guide during future museum visits to explore even more works from the Collection in a similar immersive way. 

“Laughing Man” by Camille Claudel
“The Traveller” by Igor Mitoraj
“Maria Callas no. 4” by Julian Schnabel
“Untitled” by Alexis Akrithakis

On the same day, art historian, art educator and mindfulness instructor Lydia Petropoulou led three mindfulness activities. The morning mindfulness workshop “I See, I Hear, I Feel, I Paint“ was designed for parents and children aged 6-12. Two mindfulness sessions designed exclusively for adults were then held in the afternoon. Titled “Mindfulness at the Museum“, they took place in the temporary exhibitions gallery where the exhibition “Catch Me” by Nicholas Kontaxis was on display.

What a great design for the day. More museums might decide to imitate what the B&E Goulandris Foundation did here.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we certainly appreciate integrating mindfulness as well as offering activities for both children and adults – and we are excited to see what the B&E Goulandris Foundation come up with for Slow Art Day 2026.

– Jessica Jane, Phyl, Ashley, and Johanna

P.S. Check out B&E Goulandris Foundation on their Facebook and Instagram.

Köping Museum’s Third Slow Art Day and Library Collaboration

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Köping Museum, a local art and history museum in the small central Swedish town of Köping, celebrated their third Slow Art Day by offering visitors a rich experience slow-looking at “Kedjad val” by P.G. Thelander and an exhibit featuring work by Tanja Ahola Rothmaier.

The event started with a guided session within Tanja Ahola Rothmaier’s exhibits, encouraging visitors to immerse themselves deeply in the viewing process. Following this guided experience, attendees participated in an art analysis exercise focusing specifically on the artwork “Kedjad val” by P.G. Thelander.

Thelander is known for his conceptual and often surrealistic art, frequently exploring themes of constraint, decision-making, and the interplay between freedom and limitation. The title, “Kedjad val” (translated as “Chained Choice”), suggests a commentary on the nature of choice.

Tanja Ahola Rothmaier’s exhibit. Photo provided by Köping Museum.
Slow looking setup for “Kedjad val” by P.G. Thelander. Photo provided by Köping Museum.

The session concluded with a relaxed group discussion over coffee, allowing participants to share insights and reflections on the artworks.

Coffee and art. Photo provided by Köping Museum.

Continuing their collaboration from the previous year, Köping’s local library also borrowed an artwork and provided instructional slow-looking cards, allowing library visitors to independently practice slow-looking.

You can download the instruction cards (in Swedish) below:

Instructions cardsDownload

We love the collaboration between the museum and the library, and thank Celly Paillet and the entire Köping Museum team for their thoughtful event. We eagerly look forward to what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2026.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. Stay connected with Köping Museum via their Facebook and Instagram @visitkoping.

Concordia Emphasizes Self-Guided Looking and Film

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For their third Slow Art Day, Concordia in Enschede, Netherlands, created an experience that embraced independent reflection and cinematic viewing.

While the originally scheduled artist talk had to be canceled due to personal reasons of the artist, the team thoughtfully adapted the event. They provided seating within the gallery space so visitors could independently spend time quietly viewing the works on display. Concordia also published tips online about how to look slowly at art, which many guests reviewed ahead of their visit. Additional prompts at the venue helped guide individual reflection and deepen the viewing experience.

Promotional graphic for Concordia’s Slow Art Day. (Courtesy of Concordia)

To conclude the day, visitors were invited to a screening of The Mirror by filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky — a contemplative cinematic work that echoes the principles of Slow Art Day.

Photos from the exhibition:

Alexandra Leykauf – All together now, video. (Photo courtesy of Concordia)
Alexandra Leykauf – Drie Stenen II. (Photo courtesy of Concordia)
Sara Rajaei – Veronica and Chantur. (Photo courtesy of Concordia)

We at Slow Art Day HQ applaud Concordia for turning unexpected changes into an opportunity to highlight the power of self-guided reflection and film. We look forward to seeing what they do for Slow Art Day 2026.

– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S. You can follow Concordia on:

Sweden’s Nationalmuseum Inspires With a Full Day of Programs

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Slow Art Day 2023 is but 11 days away!

Meanwhile, more museums continue to register their plans with us including the Swedish Nationalmuseum with its inspiring (and first) full day of slow activities.

Under the direction of Johannes Mayer who coordinates the public events/programming for Nationalmuseum, the museum will start Slow Art Day with a slow yoga class amongst sculptures in the sculpture yard, in the morning at 8:30 am before the museum opens. Participants will be led by yoga teacher Victoria Winderud. The session ends with a fresh smoothie served in the café beneath.

Wow.

Then, once the museum opens young visitors (5-11 years old) will be invited to go on a slow looking tour of a handful of paintings in the collection, led by museum staff, between 10:30 and 11:15 pm. At 2pm, adults will be invited to go on their own slow looking tour.

But that’s not all.

There will also be an art-chill session at the beautiful Strömsalen (a large room with both paintings and sculptures), led by Sara Borgegård, Intendent Pedagogik for the museum (roughly – the “Superintendent of Pedagogy”) who will tell a saga based on one of the sculptures in the room.

Wait. There’s more.

All day long, the Nationalmuseum will offer what they are calling “drop-in art-chill” at the sculpture-hall/yard, where visitors can sit or lay down on a yoga-mat and listen to a pre-recorded art-chill session, slowly observing the beautiful room.

Finally, all visitors can borrow a slow-looking guide to explore and discover our works of art at their own slow pace.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

What a great design.

I hope this inspires other Slow Art Day museums and galleries.

And wherever you are, we hope you have a GOOD and Slow Art Day 2023.

Best,

Phyl and the Slow Art Day team

P.S. Remember to register your Slow Art Day with us so our volunteer team can write-up a report and feature you in our Annual Report, which has become the Bible of the slow looking movement.

P.P.S. If you need any of the host tools – logo for use in your print or digital efforts, and all of the past reports with their many tools, tips, and inspiring approaches – then go to the host tools section of our Slow Art Day website.