Listening to a symphony or watching a film, an audience’s interaction with the piece ends at the sonata or closing credits. How long, though, should someone spend looking at a painting?
According to a survey of 150 visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, museum-goers spend an average of 27.2 seconds engaging with a piece of artwork. The Louvre found that visitors to the Mona Lisa spend just 15 seconds looking at the work.
On Saturday, the Hood Museum will take part in Slow Art Day, an international one-day event launched by Phil Terry in 2010 to persuade museum-goers to spend more time appreciating visual art. The Hood will host tours Saturday afternoon and encourage visitors to take their time touring the museum. This is the third year that the Hood will participate.
At 2 p.m., the Hood will offer its first tour, featuring works by 80 artists. It will focus on art connected to New Hampshire and Vermont as well as works by contemporary artists at Dartmouth, a testament to the museum’s success at collecting contemporary pieces Lesley Wellman, Hood Foundation education curator, said.
She said she was immediately convinced of Slow Art Day’s applicability to the Hood.
“We’re a teaching museum, and what we try to do in all of our teaching here is to get people to slow down and look carefully,” she said.
The museum has also arranged a 3 p.m. tour called “Learning to Look,” which will offer museum visitors suggestions about analyzing different works of art. The tour, structured as a conversation rather than a lecture, intends to help visitors develop a more nuanced understanding of artists’ intent and meaning in their works.
Hood public relations coordinator Sharon Reed, who organized the museum’s appreciation day, said the Hood will not limit visitors to looking at a few specific works.
The museum will be open for regular Saturday hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m, and will provide special brochures for visitors who do not wish to go on a tour, Wellman said.
While community members have attended similar events in the past, the Hood hopes to draw students through its doors on Saturday as well, Reed said.
“I’ve always been so impressed that these students are not trying to see everything in our museum,” Wellman said. “Looking at one [work] is part of how engaging with art becomes more personal or meaningful.”
Aime Joo ’17, who plans to attend the event, said its concept intrigued her.
“I think that it would be a great opportunity for us students to stop and take a break from our hectic lives,” she said. “Viewing art can actually be a very relaxing experience.”
