Ai Nakatsuka

This zine, created for Slow Art Day, features hollowed-out pages, each designed with an illustrated picture frame. Visitors can carry the zine through the museum, using its pages to frame artworks, finding new perspectives on each exhibit. This interactive element encourages slower, more intentional engagement with the artworks, allowing visitors to explore at their own pace and consider the atmosphere of each piece. Additionally, the zine invites a deeper appreciation of museum exhibits and how art is presented and experienced.

Alex Allen

This zine highlights the behind-the-scenes work of museums, including the Owens.

Aynsley Atkinson

Experiencing Museums Through a Plurality of Cultures explores the complex and multi-layered experience multi-cultural people have with the museum and gallery environment. Taking a personal perspective, Aynsley shares her experiences in hopes of connecting with others. She wants everyone to feel that their experiences are valid and to understand that there is no one “right” way to experience a museum or gallery and that everyone has a different story that makes them who they are. As Aynsley notes, this zine is a reminder “that there is hope and that things will get better, but we have to be patient. The changes we want to see will not happen overnight, but we will get to the place we want when it is the right time.”

“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

Ben Beaumont

This zine describes the author’s personal experience with using music in galleries to combat the brightness and quietness of the traditional gallery setting. The sensory environment is something many people struggle with in museums. Music has been a personal remedy for Ben. Included in this zine is Ben’s playlist for traveling through the museum space in a calm, relaxed manner.

Bronwen Ramsey-Brimberg

Believe highlights ideas from the philosophy of looking, versus simply “seeing” artworks in museums, through a fun combination of fairies and football (soccer). People tend to set their eyes on artwork (or anything in general) and start to make assumptions before taking a step back and looking at it with an open mind. Once a person truly looks at an artwork, they will be able to look past their preconceptions. What unites football, fairies and artwork is the significance of believing in them and the power that belief can wield. Engaging all ages, Believe brings the magic of sport, mythology and visual culture together in a visually pleasing zine.

Grace Farella

This zine acts as an accompanying document to the Access Resources and Sensory Supports at the Owens Art Gallery. The Resources for You! is your guide to understanding the access benefits each resource provides. Listing each item individually, this zine goes into detail to address the multiple ways an individual might use these resources, aiming to provide insight and mitigating shyness in accessing the resources. Hand-drawn and small-scale, this zine emulates a cozy and intimate understanding of the resources, treating the topic with care. The Resources for You! highlights the many ways the resources provided can help make your museum experience more accommodating and accessible.

Jacob Puffer

An Insider/Outsider dichotomy permeates arts discourses, and our position within this divide deeply influences how we think of and experience arts and culture spaces. Outside puts forth a number of introspective questions which ask us to contemplate the permeability of the museum’s myriad thresholds. Through a combination of text and collaged images, this zine considers the intersectional relationship between museum and place.

Jane Gurney

This zine highlights the importance of engaging with art through the lens of a “take it slow” relationship comic. The pink paper and soft linework creates a humorous space for exploring what personal relationships might be forged between art and audience, using the language of candy hearts and walks in the park.

Jenna Rogers

This zine was created for Slow Art Day at the Owens (2025) as an introduction to slow looking. It offers tips for slow looking and is centred on texture to allow visitors to focus on and consider specific aspects of artwork in the gallery. It gives visitors a chance to contemplate texture in a less formal way and prompts them to try to recreate the textures themselves.

Louisa Thurler

5-4-3-2-1 is an interactive, photocopied zine made to ground museum-goers before their visit. The zine follows a common anxiety-grounding technique, with spaces to write or draw. It offers guidance to help people slowdown in order to appreciate their visit as much as possible.

Megan Land

Dementia is a disease currently affecting around 55 million people worldwide, and 1 million of them live in the United Kingdom. The author has a personal connection to dementia, as many people do, and wanted to create a resource about dementia that is itself dementia-friendly. Creating cultural and social spaces which are better designed with accessibility in mind are helpful to all visitors, and designing for dementia can be exactly that. This zine offers an introduction to some of the current thoughts about dementia design for museums including practical options and possibilities.

Theodore Magnus

This pair of zines was created as a companion tool to enhance personal learning during visits to art galleries. The set includes questions, activities, and journal prompts designed to help engage more deeply with art both within and outside the gallery. These activities can be done while visiting an art gallery and after the reader’s visit.