Mindfulness at the Mint offers a welcoming space for self-care and gaining knowledge about art

By Diane Lowry and Joel Smeltzer

Mindfulness at the Mint programming contributes to the emerging field of mindfulness in museums. Mindfulness programs in museums have become increasingly popular in recent years.

Join one of the following mindfulness programs offered at the Mint:

Mindful Looking: Mindful Looking provides space for connections to happen between participants, the artwork and the facilitators. Experience increased mind-body awareness
with works on view as the focus of contemplation and discovery, enhanced by guided slow looking and mindful breathing, followed by a group discussion to open
dialogue and discover personal connections
and interpretations. Free with registration.

Mindful Sketching: In these sessions, mindfulness techniques, such as mindful breathing and guided slow looking are integrated and prompts are provided. Participants can sketch a work of their choice and then return for a conversation with the group. Free with registration.

Meditation at the Mint: Immerse yourself in a calm and contemplative atmosphere as you experience mindful breathing and guided slow-looking meditation surrounded by art. Sessions include a 20-minute guided, slow-looking meditation and 10-minute closing discussion. Free with admission.

Find upcoming programs at mintmuseum.org/events.

Mindfulness at the Mint offers a welcoming space for self-care and gaining knowledge about art.

By Diane Lowry and Joel Smeltzer

Practicing mindfulness techniques while slow looking at art can have a positive impact on health and well-being. According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, “Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.”
Researchers have found that the average time that adults spend looking at one work of art in a museum is less than 30 seconds. What do we miss when we look so quickly? Slow looking is a foundation of art engagement. It encourages us to be present, patient, and willing to immerse ourselves in the act of observation.
Mindfulness, the practice of focusing on the present moment while observing one’s thoughts and feelings, can reduce stress, increase self-awareness and encourage empathy towards others. Integrating guided slow looking and breathwork into gallery programs at the Mint offer a concentrated focus on works of art. Colors, and subject matter. It becomes an immersive and sensory experience. One notices more nuances and details, makes discoveries, and during facilitated dialogue with Mint staff and others in the group, gain knowledge about the works of art.

Mindfulness and slow-looking programs provide a plethora of mind and body benefits, including:
– Stress relief through being present, slowing down, breathing, which in turn can help to lower blood pressure and heart rate, and increase feelings of calm and well-being.
– Relationship building by feeling heard and sharing perceptual experiences that are relatable through the works of art.
– Discovery and connectedness through conversations about the meaning of the works and feelings sparked by the works of art.

Tips for slow looking:
Take some time to pause, relax and look mindfully while visiting the museum and galleries.
– Pick a work of art from the collection either online or in person in the gallery. Spend several minutes looking closely at the art.
– Rest your eyes on the art with a soft gaze, breathe deeply, and be aware of your inhale and exhale.
– Allow your emotions, curiosity, and personal connections to the work of art come into your awareness.
– Be mindful of the small details. What do you notice?
– You may want to make a mental note of what you are seeing or write your thoughts in a notebook. You can also do some sketching as you look.
– If you are with a friend, talk about it. Did you notice different things?

Joel Smeltzer is head of school and gallery programs at The Mint Museum. Diane Lowry is a docent and guest services associate at The Mint Museum. She also is a certified mindfulness meditation guide with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and 20 years of experience as a healing arts practitioner.

By Leslie Strauss, head of family and studio programs

For the fourth consecutive summer, visitors had the chance to meet animals up close and try out creative art activities at Wild Wednesdays. Artists of all ages enjoyed making homemade bubble wands, drawing North Carolina’s state mammal the Eastern Gray Squirrel, and crafting snakes out of clay. Families especially loved the free-choice activities in the Art Room at Mint Museum Randolph.

The highlight of the events continues to be the Stevens Creek Nature Center booth where one can choose to touch a corn snake, learn about the habits of the yellow-bellied slider, or hear the story of a box turtle recovering from a forest fire. Nature center educators, and their animal counterparts, did an amazing job of helping museum visitors develop a deeper appreciation of the natural world. In addition to making art and learning about species native to the Piedmont region of North Carolina, families used scavenger hunts to explore museum galleries, played on the lawn, and observed insects in the pollinator-friendly flower garden in front of the museum.

Wild Wednesdays launched during the summer of 2021 when circumstances required the museum to program outdoors for the safety of visitors. Four years later, the initiative has grown to include both indoor and outdoor experiences and continues to resonate with visitors who love celebrating the natural world.

Hats off to two of the Mint’s senior leaders who were named in Charlotte Business Journal’s top executive honoree lists.

Todd Herman, PhD, president and CEO of the Mint, was selected as an honoree in CBJ’s Most Admired CEO awards under Arts and Culture. CBJ’s Most-Admired CEO Awards program recognizes established leaders in the Charlotte region who have demonstrated a strong vision for their companies and a commitment to the community.

Gary Blankemeyer, the Mint’s chief operating/chief financial officer, leads the 2024 class of CFO of the Year honorees and will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from CBJ. CBJ seeks to put a spotlight on the Charlotte area’s brightest financial executives through the CFO of the Year Awards program.

The medium is a metaphor 

By Page Leggett 

Kenny Nguyen is both creator and destroyer. The native of Vietnam, who now lives in Concord, explains, “If you want to do something new, you have to destroy something and rebuild it.”    

His elegant, ethereal art made from paint-soaked silk looks serene. There’s no trace of the demolition involved in making it. The reason he tears down only to build back up goes deeper than aesthetics. The deconstruction (and reconstruction) mimics his own seismic cultural shift.

Nguyen and his family left Vietnam for Charlotte when he was 19. His use of silk is an homage to his homeland; Vietnam produces some of the world’s finest. Once he arrived in the United States, he felt as though he had to start everything all over again. “It was like I was being deconstructed,” he says. “I had to reconstruct my identity. If you move somewhere and don’t know anybody and don’t speak the language, it’s very isolating. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

Portrait of the artist as a young child  

Nguyen grew up in a small village in the Mekong Delta. Its size and remoteness forced him to make his own fun.

“We were very isolated,” he says. “There was no road connecting us to anything, so we traveled by boat. I didn’t have access to a playground or toys. If I wanted to play with something, I had to make it myself. My mom and dad introduced me to watercolors when I was 4 or 5, and I spent much of my childhood painting and drawing. It never left me.”

At 17, he moved to Ho Chi Minh City to study fashion design. But that wasn’t the biggest culture shock he’d experience. That happened three years later in 2010 when the family moved to Charlotte. Nguyen switched course and studied fine art, earning a bachelor’s degree in painting from UNC Charlotte in 2016. After graduation, he pursued art while also working part-time at a nail salon. The pandemic, while devastating for many, brought Nguyen good fortune. Thanks to social media, that is when he made the leap to full-time artist. Social media has no geographic boundaries, so when he shared his work online, collectors all over the world took notice. Prestigious galleries found him and he sold more in 2020 than ever before.

Nguyen is now among Sundaram Tagore Gallery’s artists, all of whom, according to the gallery’s website, “produce museum-caliber work.” The contemporary gallery, with locations in Singapore and London, specializes in “work that is aesthetically and intellectually rigorous, infused with humanism and art historically significant.” He’s exhibited in France, Iceland, and South Korea and recently returned from Büdelsdorf, Germany, where he was part of an international group show.

A melting pot of materials  

There’s a lot of physicality to Nguyen’s art-making process. He creates his large-scale work on the floor of his studio. He cuts the silk and soaks the strips — often, hundreds of them — in acrylic paint. While those strips are still damp, they’re affixed to a canvas. The wet, thick paint acts as an adhesive.  

The finished work has three layers: silk, paint, and canvas. Although they are tightly integrated, it is hard to tell where one piece ends and another begins. The fabric maintains its character while also becoming something new once he assembles the strips with pushpins, a holdover from his fashion design days. Once he finishes a work on the floor, he hangs it on a wall in his studio for more tinkering. The painted silk strips can be placed in different configurations on canvas. Pushpins allow him to gently sculpt the pieces into undulating folds. “One piece can take many different forms, just like our identities, which are always changing.”

Performance art  

Nguyen’s collectors often tell him they have never seen anything like his art. His installation process is as labor-intensive as his creative process. It is not uncommon for a collector to film him working. One New York collector, born and raised in Vietnam, tells him it reminds her of home. “It’s always meaningful when collectors connect with my work,” he says. “These aren’t typical ready-to-hang paintings,” he explains. “My work is much more complicated. It needs to be installed. When I do an installation, it’s sort of like a performance. My collectors witness the art come alive as I rebuild it on their wall. I think it adds to the joy of collecting.”  

When Nguyen invented the process he uses to make his “deconstructed paintings,” he wasn’t sure others would get it, but Sozo Gallery founder and owner Hannah Blanton did. Shortly after Nguyen’s graduation, Blanton’s now-closed uptown gallery began representing him and did so until Blanton closed Sozo and opened her art consultancy business seven years later. Today, she serves as studio director for Nguyen. Nguyen credits Blanton with promoting his work and helping explain its complexities to potential patrons.

Indeed, his work is mysterious. “People always want to take a closer look, because it’s almost an illusion tricking you,” he says.

The artist who once felt like a stranger here now considers Charlotte his second home. (Vietnam is still first.) “I’m grateful for the large art community here that encouraged and supported me,” he says. “When I talk to young people who want to start an art career here, I’m happy to tell them they don’t have to move to New York to make it.”

Page Leggett is a Charlotte-based freelance writer. Her stories have appeared in The Charlotte Observer, The Biscuit, Charlotte magazine and many other regional publications. 

Image: Photo from QC Metro by Photographer Lillyanna Sum

Qcity Metro recently named Rubie R. Britt-Height, Mint Director of Community Relations, as one of “The Great 28”, “honoring 28 Black Charlotteans shaping our city”.

Tenured at the Mint for nearly 16 years, Britt-Height is also the Co-leader of DEIAB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging). She is among those considered instrumental in making the City a better place to live, work, and play; for her, it’s through community servant leadership and the arts. Britt-Height also is a member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Arts Commission, the Mecklenburg County History Latta Place Reimagining Committee, and mentor, advocate, and collaborator/partner with over 100 diverse and emerging artists, church, civic, and community organizations.

She has been recognized with numerous awards this past year: The Latino Excelente’ Award for the Most Supportive Non-Latino of the Latin American Community (La Noticia Media); the CBJ Power 100 Award (DEI), the Arts Empowerment Project Award and Charlotte NAACP for Outstanding Community Leader, and the Who’s Who in Black Charlotte for one of its Most Influential Leaders.

Passionate and humble about her role arts role in the community, Britt-Height’s mantra is “Greatness is measured by service and selflessness. In that with humility, anyone can be great,” says Britt-Height. “I was raised in a family of public servants (over 150 years in my immediate family along) and compassionate community leaders. Some things just come naturally for me. My great-great grandmother was enslaved, and all sides of my family are connected to a solid foundation of wisdom, education, outreach, and selflessness. That makes me an heir of that.” Britt Height says she invests in the region by using art as a springboard for conversation, dialogue, and transformation by using art education via numerous art forms: music and dance, poetry, quilting, painting, basketry, jewelry and clothing design, photography, decorative art, wood, and glass.

This year’s winners include entrepreneurs, volunteers, business executives, community leaders, and more. Among them honored is Community Leader Jeanette Price, the Grier Heights Youth Arts Program community liaison, and Artist-Educator Naomi Rankin, who accepted the Great 28 Award posthumously for her late husband Nelson Rankin.

Read more here https://qcitymetro.com/2024/02/01/the-great-28-black-charlotteans-who-are-shaping-our-city-2/

A native of Charlotte, human resources coordinator Justin Williams is a creative and musician who enjoys being involved in the arts and finds himself consistently pushing the envelope to try new things. Justin’s favorite piece currently on display at The Mint is ‘Hyper Ellipsoid’ By Gisela Colon.

“I really enjoy how the piece dominates a space and interacts with light. It evolves based on where you stand in front of it. I also like the concept of organic Minimalism.”