The circumstances of the past year and a half required the world to slow down. In a capitalist society, the shift in pace caused much anxiety and hardship, despite allowing a momentary collective breather. Leisure, defined as “freedom provided by the cessation of activities,” has historically been a luxury reserved for the upper echelons of society, from aristocrats to the rich and famous. Without proper boundaries in place, working from home busted the myth of work-life balance by tipping the scales further towards work.

The “grind culture,” which conflates productivity with self-worth, conditions us to understand leisure as a hard-earned and rare reward. However, more and more cultural thinkers and organizations are working to dismantle the inherently problematic work culture in the United States by underscoring the importance of regular leisure and self-care. Besides their health benefits, centralizing joy, pleasure, and healing is a tool of resistance and protest against oppressive systems, especially for people of color and other marginalized communities. How can intentional and normalized hedonism help upend the work-life balance heavily dictated by the intersection of race, class, and gender?

Historically, art is intertwined with leisure. The reclining nude, for example, one of art’s most popular tropes, is inherently leisurely. How are contemporary artists recontextualizing the genre? What other activities, subjects, and materials embody the pursuit of happiness, play, pleasure, and rest in art? How can leisure improve our relationship with ourselves, those close to us, and with our communities? What are the subtle and intimate ways in which we prioritize living—loving, dancing, sleeping, exercising, eating, healing, and other leisurely actions—over working?