Slow Art Day Tour: Calm Your Mind and Engage Your Hidden Superpower of Observation
Learn to calm your mind and engage your hidden superpower of observation by re-learning how to look at art mindfully. Curator of Education Sorcha Meek Paul leads thoughtful discussion among participants while looking closely at two paintings in our collection. No experience is necessary! The Slow Art Day tour at Maryhill Museum of Art is included with general admission and is part of our Educational programs for the public.
What is Slow Art Day?
Founded in 2010, Slow Art Day is a global event with a simple mission: help more people discover for themselves the joy of looking at and loving art. Slow art requires the viewer to slow down and take the time to really look and delve deeply. Looking creates dialogue which then reveals details, understanding, and life-long skills for looking at and connecting with art and art museums. Museum Observer writes that the top 4 benefits of slow looking at art are:
- Deeper Appreciation: Prolonged observation allows viewers to notice subtle details—such as brushstrokes, color contrasts, or symbolic elements—that might be missed during a quick glance.
- Personal Connection: Taking the time to reflect on an artwork can lead to a stronger emotional or intellectual connection with it. Art becomes more than just an object; it becomes a meaningful experience.
- Enhanced Well-Being: Like meditation, slow looking can reduce stress, improve focus, and promote relaxation. It provides a rare opportunity to slow down and engage deeply in a world often dominated by distractions.
- Broader Perspectives: The post-viewing discussions encourage participants to consider different viewpoints and interpretations, enriching their understanding of both the artwork and the people around them.
(source: Museum Observer).
From the International Slow Art Day website:
In an art world too often driven by money or the latest technology (NFTs, for example), Slow Art Day is passionately retro. We advocate an ancient practice – one at least as old as the paleolithic cave paintings in Lascaux, France – and that is this: slow down and look.
Neuroscience has confirmed what ancient artists always knew: we see only a tiny fraction of what is around us. To widen the lens and allow more in, we must slow down.
And it turns out that slowing down not only helps us see more, but, as mentioned above, it brings with it the joy of discovering more. What sounds like a possibly boring act (if watching paint dry is boring, then watching dry paint must be even more so), is quite the opposite. But we cannot convince people of this, they must experience it themselves.
In that insight, lies another. Slow looking is a radically inclusive act.
We do not seek to tell educators how to design their slow looking events, nor have the educators tell their participants how to see (or that they need an expert education first).
No.
Rather, we advocate what The Washington Post wrote about in 2021: Slow Art Day and the act of slow looking are radically inclusive experiences where participants include themselves.
The art world has too long been dominated by the notion that you need to know before you look. In other words, that art is an exclusive domain for the already-educated.
No.
Humans need nothing special before they begin to see art – only to slow down.
Interestingly, we have found that once people slow down and begin to look, then that triggers a curiosity to learn more – and that is when the books or expert lectures can be valuable; that is when ordinary people are motivated by their own interest to learn more.
In this way, slow looking events are fundamentally non-patronizing and radically inclusive.