The Ringling encourages viewing more than 30 seconds

Walk into a museum and you’ll see people looking at paintings through cell phone screens. Snapping photos of a painting without actually engaging in the art has become a standard habit.

“I’d love to see where all those photos go,” Maureen Zaremba, curator of education at The Ringling, says.

Slow Art Day will take place 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 12, at The Ringling museum with the intention that people need to slow down and take a real look. Docents placed at six different paintings will encourage conversation.

“It’s probably really shocking to know that the average museum visitor spends less than 30 seconds in front of a work of art,” Zaremba says.

The Ringling staff has devised a set of questions per each painting to facilitate thinking, engagement and discovery. Zaremba explains that the questions will act as an icebreaker to get viewers started. Docents will allow the conversation to go where the viewers take it.

The conversations will last for at least five minutes. Zaremba says by extending the time with each painting, viewers will see what the artist intended and viewers will experience the painting on a more personal level.

“Each work of art speaks to us,” she says. “By spending time with it, it will speak to you in greater depth, and you’ll develop a conversation with that work of art.”