Staff photo / Andy Gray Joy Mistovich, assistant education director and Digital UX accessibility specialist at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, stands with the Alfred Leslie painting “Americans: Youngstown, Ohio,” which will be the focus of the museum’s first Meditation on American Masterpieces program.

YOUNGSTOWN — Communing with nature is a common way to seek out tranquil spaces.

In northeast Ohio in January, one is more likely to find frostbite outdoors than inner peace.

The Butler Institute of American Art will transform into an oasis amid the chaos with a new program starting next week called Meditation on American Masterpieces.

The works on display at the museum will be used by participants in mindful awareness exercises. According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, mindfulness is a type of meditation in which people focus on being intensely aware of what they’re sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment..

The program already exists at such institutions as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Joy Mistovich, the Butler’s assistant education director and Digital UX accessibility specialist, said it’s also in place at the Cincinnati Art Museum, where she attended a conference and also had her artwork featured in a disability art show. Learning about the program there sparked an interest in exploring what other museums were doing nationwide.

“Our world is continuously filled with challenging situations, and it’s continuing to go at a fast pace,” Mistovich said. “It’s important to be able to take time and to connect — just finding themselves in that space and calming their mind and experiencing less burnout and finding their place within the museum space.”

Chairs will be set up in the gallery, and a docent will give participants different prompts to think about as they study the art.

“The docent will give a brief summary of the artwork and then she will describe the possible ways in which individuals can meditate on the specific artwork,” Mistovich said. “For example, ‘What textures do the visitors see?’ ‘How does their experience and their interests connect with the artwork?’ ‘Imagine they are a part of the artwork.'”

The focus for the first session will be one of the largest works in the Butler’s permanent collection and one with local ties. “Americans: Youngstown, Ohio” was painted by artist Alfred Leslie (1927-2023) in Youngstown in 1977 and 1978 and features Butler Executive Director Louis A. Zona as one of its 14 models. The oil-on-canvas work was created on four panels with a combined size of 9-feet-by-24-feet.

It had been on loan to the museum and was donated to the Butler last year by Leslie’s estate. When the museum acquired the work, Zona said Leslie had asked him to find a diverse group of models and told participants to dress as if they were going to the movies. Leslie was inspired by the lines of people of all ages that he saw going to see the blockbuster “Star Wars,” and “Star Wars” was the working title for the painting.

Sometimes the works chosen will reflect a certain theme — February’s choice will be influenced by Black History Month, March’s by Women’s History Month, Mistovich said. Other times it might be one of the masterworks in the permanent collection or a piece that is part of a special exhibition.

The first Meditation on American Masterpieces is scheduled at 11 a.m. Jan. 24, and the program will continue on the fourth Saturday of the month through May.

“We’ll analyze visitor response and see how well everything goes,” Mistovich said. “If everything goes well, then the program will continue going forward.”

If you go …

WHAT: Meditation on American Masterpieces

WHEN: 11 a.m. to noon Jan. 24

WHERE: Butler Institute of American Art, 524 Wick Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: The program is free.