Conversations
Look Again: A Meditative Museum Experience

Looking at the mural in the ROM's Bishop White Gallery

Date

Saturday, Apr 25, 2026 14:00 - 16:00

Admission

$40.00 Regular Price
$36.00 ROM Member Price
Registration opens March 3, 2026.

Audience

Adults
Contact us

About

Mindfulness Month at ROM 

This April, ROM invites you to take part in two different mindfulness program series designed to offer space for reflection, presence, and deeper engagement with the Museum. Each program will run three separate sessions throughout the month. One series focuses on mindful engagement with cultural and natural collections, while the other examines mindfulness through the Museum’s architectural spaces. If you’re curious to experience mindfulness in an interactive and refreshing way, and you have an interest in art, culture, nature, architecture, and mental health, we invite you to join us at ROM this April. 

Look Again: A Meditative Museum Experience takes place in one of the following locations: the galleries of China/Korea; Earth’s Treasures (Minerals); or Dawn of Life/Age of Dinosaurs. Through a guided sequence of meditative practices, you’ll be prompted to reconnect with your senses and experience the objects on display in new ways. The program introduces techniques such as deep looking, body scanning, sensory foraging, and reflective riddles, exposing the variety of practices nestled within meditation—a museum in its own right. The experience further weaves together moments of shared reflection following each activity, fostering community and connection. At the end of the session, you may choose to join a larger group discussion to exchange insights and experiences or return quietly to the gallery locations to sit with your thoughts and continue your visit until the Museum closes. Participants often uncover unexpected perspectives through these practices, leaving with practical meditative tools they can carry forward into their everyday lives. 

Sign up for any or as many sessions as you want (each one requires a separate registration): 

Facilitator

Mridula Sathyanarayanan. Photo credit: @Calvin Campos
Mridula Sathyanarayanan

Mridula Sathyanarayanan believes that the intersection of meditation and museums can mutually enrich both fields by expanding access to contemplative practice while offering museums innovative new forms of engagement. She is in her fourth year at the University of Toronto, studying neuroscience, philosophy, and Buddhist psychology, an interdisciplinary combination that reflects her core interest in how meditation practices support individual and collective wellbeing.  She has led a funded qualitative study with longtime Buddhist meditators in Toronto, contributed to a mixed-methods project in Plum Village, France, and is collaborating with graduate students to edit an upcoming anthology of student-written mindfulness poems.  

Her academic work extends into practice through her wellness initiatives at Victoria College, where she has created resources, hosted events, recorded guided meditations, and launched a live meditation booking system. Through her role as a Laidlaw Scholar, she independently designed and taught a meditation course for the UK mental health charity West Central London Mind, using the metaphor of a museum to introduce techniques. This creative approach was praised by participants and experts at the EASE Laboratory, the Mind & Life Institute, and the Hospital for Sick Children.  

Related events