There’s More to Art Than Meets the Eye: Creating a Transformative Process of Well-being and Mindfulness through Slow Looking at National Gallery Singapore

This paper presents action research carried out on the Slow Art Guide at National Gallery Singapore, presenting a summary of the process and results of Phases One and Two of a two-year research journey. The results lend evidence to the Guide’s success in establishing conditions of mindfulness, which led to both narrative statements and statistical improvement of well-being for the participants. These results further support the need and significance of engaging with artwork beyond appreciation of their visual appearance. The results also affirm the place of art museums in mitigating ill-being through transformative programs, and advocate for the conscientious design of such programs, which can create successful conditions of mindfulness that support the well-being of audiences.