Social media is really hot right now. It’s a good way to bring our content to the surface and connect with people interested in our museum and our artworks. I always tell people, however, that there is nothing like face-to-face contact, and no social media app can compete with that. Twitter, blogs, and Facebook, after all, are only conduits for connecting people.
So, when I heard about Slow Art, I was intrigued. This month, Slow Art will take place at sixteen museums around the world. I asked Georgina Goodlander and her staff at the Luce Foundation Center if they'd be interested in hosting an event at American Art. At Slow Art meetups, a group of people come together and spend quality time looking at art. Afterward, they meet over lunch to talk about what they've seen and how they feel about the works. Slow Art is, in a way, "retro social media"! Like social interactions used to be. The object of Slow Art, like that of its online social media brethren, is to bring people together to talk about things that are meaningful to them. And it's a way to remember that sometimes it's nice to slow down from our racing lives and enjoy looking at art.
We'd like you to join us at our DC Slow Art meetup on October 17. Registering isn't necessary, but doing so would help us know how many people to anticipate. Museum admission is free (bring your lunch or buy it at our café in the Kogod Courtyard, where we'll meet for discussion). We've whittled our forty-one thousand artworks to a few suggested works that should provide more than enough visual interest to contemplate and talk about over lunch. To kick off the discussions, take a look at the Hockney above and Agnes Tait's Skating in Central Park. What artworks would you like to discuss?
Related Post: "Talking About Slow Art"
