Mission accomplished: First art geocoin returns
March 26, 2019
In May of 2011, the McMaster Museum of Art joined the geocaching world and launched the first of nearly 100 Art Adventure Geocoins. Each coin is named for an artist in McMaster’s collection and tasked with a mission: to travel to the birthplace of the artist (or the equivalent distance) and then return home to McMaster.
Last week the first Art Explorer Geocoin completed its mission, unaided. <strong>The Lemmen Geocoin travelled 23308 km (the goal was 6079 km) in 5 years.</strong> Although it never reached Schaerbeek, Belgium; it logged over 2000 visits to geocaches through many different hands and geocaches from Saskatchewan to PEI, and to the Caribbean.
The coin is named for Georges Lemmen (1865 -1916), a Belgian painter, engraver, draftsman, and designer. He was a Neo-Impressionist painter. In the 1880s he was heavily influenced by Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec. The death of Seurat in 1891 had a great impact on all of the painters in the Neo-Impressionist Group. In 1895 Lemmen began painting in a more traditional style. His work includes many book illustrations, posters, ceramics, carpets, drawings, and pastels. McMaster Museum of Art owns two paintings by Lemmen, <em>The Meuse River</em>, and <em>Sketch for ‘Sewing’</em>.
As the weather improves and geocaching season begins in earnest, we look forward to our next geocoin’s homecoming.
Fall 2026 Exhibitions at the McMaster Museum of Art
September 4, 2026
Connected Histories, Research, and Archives—Interview with Nnamdi Nnake
September 1, 2026
What stories can the telegraph tell? More than a century after telegraph lines began to stretch across Nigeria, Connected Histories: The Telegraph in Nigeria invites visitors to take a fresh look at a technology that helped shape modern communications, colonial governance, labour, and everyday life. Drawing on the doctoral research of McMaster University PhD candidate Nnamdi Nnake, the exhibition brings together rare artifacts, archival […]
M(M)A Education Staff Teresa Gregorio Shortlisted in City of Hamilton’s Arts Champion Awards
June 23, 2026
Please join us in congratulating M(M)A’s Educator for Campus & Community Engagement, Teresa Gregorio, for being shortlisted in the Arts Champion Awards in City of Hamilton’s Arts Award 2026. The Arts Champion Awards may be conferred annually to living individuals who are outstanding supporters of the arts in Hamilton as volunteers, advocates, or board members. […]
