MUSEUM TEACHES MINDFULNESS THROUGH ART APPRECIATION

The Stirling Smith will launch Mindful Art sessions on Wednesday (13 May), in collaboration with local mindfulness coach Louise Cullen, in a bid to relax and refocus our busy minds during lockdown.

The museum’s Events and Exhibitions Officer, Dr Heather Carroll said: “We’re committed to enhancing health and wellbeing through engagement with our collection. We hope that by offering mindfulness practice focusing on art, we will allow people to experience our collection in a new way. Louise will be leading four Mindful Art sessions using paintings from The Stirling Smith. These will take place every second Wednesday via Facebook Live and we’ll be looking at a different painting each session.  It’s free to attend and sessions will last between 30-45 minutes.”

Louise Cullen added: “Looking at art using mindfulness practices can be a great way to lift the spirits and focus the mind. The stories in paintings can be intriguing, funny, a great distraction to us in diverting our mind, momentarily to another viewpoint.  There is now even more evidence to suggest that paying attention, in this way, can be beneficial to our health and wellbeing.”

Join The Stirling Smith on Facebook at 7pm on Wednesday 13 May for the first session, which will focus on A Spring Idyll by the Scottish artist Thomas Bromley Blacklock.