Your next trip to a museum in downtown Phoenix might just include a little more relaxation.
Both the Heard Museum and the Phoenix Art Museum are offering programs this spring that could enhance museumgoers’ health.
The Heard is offering yoga classes twice a month, and the Phoenix Art Museum is offering a weekly series on mindfulness.
The Heard is partnering with the Rooted Community Yoga Project to offer a yoga series for the public on the second and fourth Saturday of every month. For $10, you get an hour long yoga class and are welcome to stay to wander the museum after.
“I loved the idea because Rooted Community Yoga Project’s mission is to make yoga accessible to all by taking it out of the studio and into the community,” said Jillian Seamans, a cofounder of the project who has taught yoga for six years. “The classes have introduced many yogis to the Heard Museum for their first time.”
“Yoga is not something that is only practiced in a studio. It is something that is lived all day, every day, so why not practice anywhere and everywhere?” Seamans said.
Kimberly Huson, an Arizona State University law student, took the yoga class for the first time in late January, intrigued by the idea of doing yoga in a place outside of a studio.
“I had never visited the Heard Museum before. This event was a perfect combination and I couldn’t pass it up,” Huson said. “Walking around the museum afterwards only added to the relaxation.”
The Phoenix Art Museum partners with Hospice of the Valley to offer a free Slow Art and Mindfulness program each Thursday. For the first three weeks, mindfulness sessions are hosted in the museum’s Dorrance Sculpture Garden, and for the last week, the class will be held inside and focus on a specific work of art.
Christian Adame, assistant education director at the Phoenix Art Museum, said the mindfulness series is bringing new people to the museum.
“People are naturally skeptical about what mindfulness is, or they’re intimidated by art museums,” Adame said. “This program really does help to dissolve perceived barriers on both sides.”
He also said he hopes the mindfulness program will help museum-goers more fully appreciate artwork at the museum.
Adame said a person’s attention to one piece of art “usually lasts eight seconds in a museum.” He hopes that this program will help guests to “slow down the looking process and to spend one’s time with intentionality.”
Adame also helps to facilitate the program and guide participants in discussion.
“It has been a truly amazing experience for me as an educator to witness,” he said. “We were able to tap into something that so many people appreciate and value in such personal ways.”
Mindfulness classes can improve both the mind and body, Adame said.
“Mindfulness has been proven to reduce stress, lower blood pressure and help those with chronic pain, to name a few physical benefits,” Adame said.
Slow Art and Mindfulness classes are held Thursdays from 12 to 12:30 p.m. at the Phoenix Art Museum, located at 1625 N. Central Ave. No fee or registration is required.
Rooted Community Yoga Project classes will be held from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. every second and fourth Saturday through April 28. A $10 fee includes museum admission, and participants are required to register online.
Contact the reporter at hpdement@asu.edu.
