Study Group Details
1510: Artful Meditation: Connecting to Modern Art
Wednesday9:45 - 11:15
Starting June 04
Online
Participants will experience works of modern art through meditation and discussion. Each week, yoga teacher Aparna Sadananda will introduce a meditation technique that aligns with an artwork and promotes close looking and exploration of its formal and thematic qualities. We will engage with these artworks through gentle-yoga postures, pranayama (breathwork), vocal toning, and mudras (hand gestures). The meditations will prepare us for the discussions facilitated by museum educator Donna Jonte, during which we will examine the artist’s life, artistic methods, and historical/social context. Through this process, we can discover strategies for connecting to art and carrying mindfulness with us into the world.
View Syllabus
This study group is new
Class Type: Lecture and Discussion
Class Format: Online
Hours of Reading: No required reading
Study Group Leader(s):
Aparna Sadananda
Aparna Sadananda, PhD, formerly a cellular neuroscience researcher, is a yoga teacher based in Washington, DC, who leads meditation programs for Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art and yoga classes and trainings for Yoga District. Visit her at https://www.innerstillnesswithaparna.com/
Aparna and Donna have worked together since 2020 designing and teaching art and mindfulness programs. At The Phillips Collection, they collaborated with an art history professor and a Unitarian minister on Nature-Spirit-Art, a 6-week, in-person course on art and climate change, and, from March 2020 to March 2025, on Art-based Meditation, a weekly, online exploration of artwork through guided meditation and discussion. They have presented at national conferences on building empathy through art-based meditation and co-wrote a chapter for the forthcoming book An Empathy-Building Toolkit for Museums, edited by Elif M. Gokcigdem (American Alliance of Museums & Bloomsbury, 2026).
Donna Jonte recently retired from her position as Head of Experiential Learning at The Phillips Collection and continues to develop and implement programs linking art and wellness. Named DC Art Educator of the Year in 2019 by the local affiliate of the National Art Education Association, Donna has a master’s in Teaching from George Mason University and a master’s in English Literature from Mills College.
Aparna and Donna have worked together since 2020 designing and teaching art and mindfulness programs. At The Phillips Collection, they collaborated with an art history professor and a Unitarian minister on Nature-Spirit-Art, a 6-week, in-person course on art and climate change, and, from March 2020 to March 2025, on Art-based Meditation, a weekly, online exploration of artwork through guided meditation and discussion. They have presented at national conferences on building empathy through art-based meditation and co-wrote a chapter for the forthcoming book An Empathy-Building Toolkit for Museums, edited by Elif M. Gokcigdem (American Alliance of Museums & Bloomsbury, 2026).