Slow Art Day

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.

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.

How does it work?

One day each year people all over the world visit local museums and galleries to look at art slowly. Participants look at five works of art for 10 minutes each and then meet together over lunch to talk about their experience. That’s it. Simple by design, the goal is to focus on the art and the art of seeing.

In fact, Slow Art Day works best when people look at the art on their own slowly and then meet up to discuss the experience (though some hosts decide to do the discussion right in the gallery).

The Friends of Saint Paul, together with Claire Baisier, curator of the Museum Mayer Van den Bergh, introduced Slow Art Day in Antwerp in 2017. Since then, we have been listed worldwide every year on the slowartday.com website.

History

2017: The Way of the Cross by De Boeck & Van Wint, an artistic high-quality wood carving that has been in our church for more than a century, is presented to visitors.

2018: In the Chapel of the Cross, Kristo&Kristo comment The Lamentation of the Sun’s Child.

2019: Kerrickx’s confessional is analysed.

2020: The painting The Scourging by Rubens just returned from a prestigious exhibition at the Doge’s Palace in Venice. Before that, it was taken care of by restorers of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. The ideal moment to take a closer look at the work. Due to the corona measures in force at the time, this Slow Art Day takes place digitally in the form of a video.

2021: The painting The Resurrection by Vinckenborgh is compared with a painting of the same name by Rubens. About 20 visitors can enjoy this presentation live, safely in bubbles, but everyone can also taste it digitally.