Join us for a morning of yoga and meditation! First, deepen your breath and take in the serenity of historic East India Marine Hall during a yoga class led by MOTA Fitness, Wellness & Spaces. Then, stick around for a guided mindfulness practice.

About the Yoga Gallery:
East India Marine Hall was built using local Cape Ann granite in 1824-25 by the architect Thomas Waldron Sumner. It was the headquarters for the East India Marine Society, PEM’s founding organization. This group of 22 sea captains and traders sailed all over the world from Salem and started the oldest collecting museum in America in 1799. East India Marine Hall is the historical and physical heart of the museum; over time, added gallery spaces have surrounded it. Recently restored to its original elegance, the building is a National Historic Landmark.

East India Marine Hall currently houses nine carved ship’s figureheads that are juxtaposed with amplified music and sea ballads as a part of Scottish artist Susan Philipsz’ exhibition If I With You Would Go. Philipsz uses sound to heighten awareness of space, emotion and memory. Her choice of a song about a young woman lured away to sea is a mythical and cautionary echo of the mercantile and maritime history embodied in this historic hall.

Observing art can induce a “flow state” of mindfulness and activate the same part of the brain that more traditional mindfulness practices, like meditation and yoga, do. Join us on the first Sunday morning of every month (second Sundays for holiday weekends) in a guided practice of “mindful looking.” Come be still, relax and connect more deeply with artworks from PEM’s collection. A different work or part of the museum will be featured in every class.