Juniper Rag artists featured in SLOW ART, a global event.
SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 2023 for SLOW ART Worcester, not April 15.
Slow Art Day is a global viewing day of looking at art slowly that happens around the world. Slow Art Day events all around the world are shaped a little differently, but share a focus on slow looking and its transformative power.
This is so cool to be able to include our artists, The White Room and Juniper Rag in this incredible event, founded by our friend Phyl Terry, the founder of the Reading Odyssey and founder and CEO of Collaborative Gain. This year, there are over 700 venues world-wide participating, so if you are not near Worcester, check out the listing to see if there is a city near you. Many know that Payal Thiffault and Michelle May were invited to be host coordinators of the very first clandestine events in 2009 for Slow Art Worcester and Slow Art Boston. Some of you may be hearing this for the first time. Slow Art on a global scale was officially launched in 2010.
Slow Art Day produces an annual report every year, with a feature from each venue, so it is exciting to be included in and have that legacy document available to a global audience. Page examples from the 2022 Slow Art Day Annual report include images of the venues, the art and participants:
What to expect:
1. SIGN UP
For everyone around the world: Sign up at your local museum or art gallery, anywhere you are located! (slowartday.com has a list by participating cities.)
Click on the list of 2023 venues, find one near you and register online).
For Worcester locals: Indicate here on the Facebook event that you are coming (it's free). (We need a count for coffee / light refreshments.) You really don’t have to sign up but it would be nice to have a headcount, so we have enough coffee/nosh for everyone.
Each event has different sign up and programming so check their websites for info.
2. ATTEND ON APRIL 16, 11 am -1 pm
View at 5-6 pre-chosen pieces of art slowly. Show up on Sunday, April 16, 2023 at The White Room, and then look slowly only 10 minutes - at each piece of pre-assigned art. ******NOTE ABOUT DATE: The White Room was not available on the 15th, so Worcester's event is on April 16th. Global events are on the 15th.
3. BUT FIRST, COFFEE
Grab a coffee before or after viewing. Everyone can chat about your experience during and after. This is a super casual thing. The venue is The White Room, so we can talk and discuss without disturbing anyone. You do not have to know anything about art, or about art speak. You just have to show up. After viewing, we will have discussion with hosts from Juniper Rag, Michelle and Payal.
We will be viewing the work of these Juniper Rag artists in the TORRID show:
Curtis Speer
Scott Boilard
Howard Johnson
John Pagano
Sue Swinand
Tara Sellios
A little background from Slow Art Day:
Slow Art 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. In that insight, lies another. Slow looking is a radically inclusive act. 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.
Founded in 2010, Slow Art Day is a global event (more than 1,500 museums and galleries have participated) with a simple mission: help more people discover for themselves the joy of looking at and loving art.
Why slow?
When people look slowly at a piece of art they make discoveries. The most important discovery they make is that they can see and experience art without an expert (or expertise).
And that’s an exciting discovery. It unlocks passion and creativity and helps to create more art lovers. -slowartday.com