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).

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.

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