Geocaching on Campus

A couple of years ago, the McMaster Museum of Art began to look into the (not so) secret world of geocaching.

To date more than fifty of our Art Adventure geocoins have travelled the world, through many hands, to thousands of locations.

Geocaching is an amazing way to explore new places (See last summer’s Canadian Geographic  story). The activity also brings adventure and fresh perspective to familiar places like McMaster University campus. While some geocachers come to the area specifically to hunt for caches, many find themselves here for different reasons and geocaching provides an enjoyable diversion.  Here are some recent comments from some of those who seized a moment to geocache while on campus:

-  Second try, I found it during my daughter’s swim meet.
-  Celebrating a happy visit to the hospital…we found a cache. We’ve spent many hours at Mac over the years and we are thankful for the fine care always given. Thanks, Mac & thanks for the great cache. The buildings here are gorgeous.
-  Was in the area while visiting my nephew who’s studying at Mac.
-  Quick find while here for soccer.
-  Out for our daily lunch time walk.
-  Quick stop on way home from the library
-  Visiting a friend in McMaster Hospital, I took my kids out to do some “Caching on Campus”.
-  At the pool for a swim meet and had some extra time 
-  Was in the area for work today and had some spare time on my hands.

McMaster University campus with its beautiful buildings, gardens and facilities including the McMaster Museum of Art (of course) alongside the RBG’s nature trails and the charm of Westdale village is a great place to explore.

Update:
The Art Adventure coins are assigned artist’s names and the goal to reach that artist’s birthplace (or travel the equivalent distance).  Many have surpassed their goal. Twenty of the Art Adventure coins have travelled beyond 2000 miles. Top five travelers are:
The Matisse Geocoin has logged 45000+  miles – now in Östergötland, Sweden
The Riopelle Geocoin has logged 15000+  miles – now in Queensland, Australia
The Gericault Geocoin has logged 11000+ miles – now back in Hamilton after a jaunt to Germany
The Andy Warhol Geocoin has logged 10000+ miles – last seen in Australia
The Beckmann Geocoin has logged 9000+ miles – last seen in Nova Scotia

Museum Education Programs: On Learning Styles and Apple Pigs

Courtesy OMA’s Twitter! @museumsontario

I just returned from an intensive, 3-day course in Sarnia with the Ontario Museum Association.  It was their Education Programs course, part of their Certificate in Museums Studies.

Held in the beautiful new Judith & Norman Alix Gallery, the instructor Melissa Wakeling from Glanmore National Historic Site was a wonderful facilitator, introducing great concepts and modeling best practice throughout! (that is, teaching to all possible learning intelligences).

Here, I thought I’d share with you a few of the great take-aways from the course:

Know your learning style. While this may seem self-indulgent, knowing your preferred learning style will help you recognize any preference you may have when constructing programs and activities. What you think is a great activity may only be working with your preferred learning style.

Assess your learning style here.

Beware apple pigs!  That is, make sure your museum’s mandate is always connected to your programming. Create activities accordingly. It’s a baseless activity for a heritage village museum to stick marshmallows on an apple in the shape of a pig for a harvest-themed program (unless, of course, you can find early settlers who did this with their precious produce!)

Feed ‘em, teach ‘em, entertain ‘em. Adults learn differently from children. They’re also motivated by different factors. Want to get adults in to your museum? Feed ‘em, teach ‘em, and entertain ‘em.

Curriculum, curriculum, curriculum! Teachers are busy people. We want them in our museums, and we can make it easier for them to come here by adding value to our programs and marketing that will appeal directly to them. Teachers need to justify their field trips: make clear connections to curriculum. Even better (for all you keeners), make a rubric for your program. Allow the teacher to stand back and have the chance to observe the class. And, with a handy rubric, they can grade the students easily. And certainly, speak their language! We all have insider-speak; if you use the glossary (found in the Ontario Curriculum), then the teacher (and students!) can very easily make connections to what they’re doing in class.

- Teresa Gregorio

Teresa Gregorio is Information Officer at the McMaster Museum of Art and Co-Coordinator of Hamilton-Area Museum Educators (HME) 

Art on the flipside: What the visitor never sees

One of the many perks of working at a Museum is the opportunity to view works of art from vantage points that the public very rarely get to see – canvases without frames, on tabletops, drawings without a barrier of glass or mat board (which may conceal an artist’s note or paint dabs), art in undiffused light, an unobstructed view from the front…and back. If you’ve ever stepped into an art vault or visited the Museum’s Paper Centre (which I highly recommend), you’ll understand how very different the experience is from the gallery presentations.

Here are a few of the interesting verso views of art in McMaster’s collection:

Back of 17th century oil painting by Adrien Brouwer (Flemish, 1605-1638)

Back of oil on panel painting c. 1913 by A.Y.Jackson (Canadian, 1882-1974)

Playing card image on the back of oil painting by Josef Herman (English, born Poland, 1911 – 2000)

Back of 1934 painting “Trees on Pine Island, Georgian Bay” by Naomi Jackson Groves (Canadian, 1910-2001). The artist was a conscientious record keeper. Part of this text says: “Likely done at same time and place as AY’s [her uncle, A.Y. Jackson]. AY, Betty Maw (Brett) and I camped here for about ten days…These trees burned down by vandals later according to AYJ.”

There is handwriting from artists and/or donors on the back of many works in the collection. Several have long narratives written in pencil telling the story that inspired the art. Others have technical notes from the artists about such things as the exact paint pigments selected.

The back of this 1969 Harold Town (Canadian, 1924-1990) painting has the artist’s signature three times as well as his hand print

Many labels from the back of an oil by Claude Monet. For the most part, labels are very helpful and can help us trace a painting’s provenance. Although, sometimes labels on the same artwork have quite different titles…more puzzles to solve.

Reflections on Platon’s Mirror

Visitors in Mischa Kuball’s installation, Platon’s Mirror
presented at McMaster Museum of Art courtesy of Goethe-Institut Toronto

Watching visitors discover Mischa Kuball’s Platon’s Mirror is amazing. The installation is immersive, layered and enigmatic and requires time spent unraveling these layers of light to determine what are clear and real images.

Kuball, influenced by Plato’s (‘Platon’ in German) Allegory of the Cave, wants us to consider the reality of the things we see and acknowledge how we feel about the things we cannot see. Do we believe that things we cannot see exist at all? Do we take the time to try and find out if they exist or trust what others tell us?

Platon’s Mirror is like an experiment – who takes the time to discover the source of the dancing light and who just remains still, basking in its mesmerizing beauty? Admittedly, I stand mesmerized and enjoy the light.

- Nicole Knibb, Education Co-ordinator, McMaster Museum of Art

Mischa Kuball, “Platon’s Mirror,” 2011.
ZKM, Karlsruhe © Onuk.

Speaking of Writing Inspired by Art…

…here are just a few examples. Students who are considering entering the Museum’s writing contest, Inspired by Art, don’t forget the deadline is this week – February 29!

THE ART	THE WRITING IT INSPIRED
Ancient Greek Vase	John Keats poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Pieter Brueghel painting The Fall of Icarus	W.H. Auden poem “Musee des Beaux Arts”
Hieronymus Bosch painting The Temptation of St. Anthony	Billy Collins poem “Musée des Beaux Arts Revisited”
Vincent Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night	Don McLean song ”Vincent (Starry starry night)“
Kitagawa Utamaro ukiyo-e print Girl Powdering Her Neck	Cathy Song poem, “Girl Powdering Her Neck“
3 works by Henri Matisse	A.S. Byatt short stories collection, “The Matisse Stories”
Claude Monet painting of Water Lilies	Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem “Monet’s Lilies Shuddering“
Pieter Brueghel paintings: Children’s Games, Self Portrait,The Hunters in the Snow, The Adoration of the Kings, Peasant Wedding, Haymaking, The Corn Harvest, The Wedding Dance in the Open Air, The Parable of the Blind	Williams Carlos William poems of same names
Leonardo da Vinci’s  Mona Lisa	Song sung by Nat King Cole in 1950, “Mona Lisa“
Johannes Vermeer painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665	book by Tracy Chevalier, “Girl with a Pearl Earring”
L.S. Lowry paintings	“Pictures of Matchstick Men”, 1967, the first hit single by the band Status Quo
Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper	Dan Brown novel “The Da Vinci Code”, 2003

Who’s on YOUR T-shirt?

And why?

Something to ponder in the context of Barbara Astman’s exhibition, Dancing with Che: Enter through the Gift Shop,  which looks at the commodification of images of notorious South American revolutionary leader Che Guevara.

Art and Science Panel, Pics and Poetry

Panelists from left: Patangi Rangachari, Daniela Schlüter, Derek Besant, Roger Jacobs, and moderator, Sean Caulfield

Last week’s Panel Discussion on Stem Cell Culture: Biomedical Research, Popular Culture and Art was a great success with more than 250 guests in attendance. For those who missed it, please have a look at the slide show below and the terrific coverage in the Hamilton Spectator article.

At the close of the panel discussion, McMaster Professor (Emeritus) Patangi Rangachari read a verse from W.H. Auden’s poem After Reading a Child’s Guide to Modern Physics — a selection that seemed to be perfect for the occasion:

This passion of our kind
For the process of finding out
Is a fact one can hardly doubt,
But I would rejoice in it more
If I knew more clearly what
We wanted the knowledge for,
Felt certain still that the mind
Is free to know or not.

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On the Museum’s Front Doorstep…

McMaster is the first university in Canada to have its campus walkways mapped by Google’s Street View project, Now, virtual tourists can navigate their way around campus roads, bike paths and trails, without leaving home. Finding campus destinations, like the Museum of Art has never been so easy! Check out McMaster on Google Street View

Here are a few other places online that the McMaster Museum of Art façade has been spotted recently…

…in a McMaster Society of Off-Campus Students Promo Video
…in a McMaster student and Parkour Club member’s video 
…and the Gaudier-Brzeska Birdbath on our front lawn continues to be a photo favourite. Here’s a excellent seasonal shot of it by Kenneth Moyle.

Birdbath. Photo © Kenneth Moyle

What Kind of Museum Visitor Are You?

Museum visitors gather for talk by artist Tony Scherman at McMaster Museum of Art, September 2011

In the past, museums and art galleries have tried to appeal to their visitors based on age demographics – you know, older people like landscapes and younger people like abstracts – but imagine, age expectations are not what we think!  Take what we know of social media: In Canada, people over the age of 50 use social media, text messaging and email more than younger people do. Recent study into museum and art gallery visitors is discovering some new and interesting things.  It’s also changing and defining what we display, promote and program for our visitors.

So what does this research tell us?  Well, research and theories posited by museum education guru John Falk and institutions such as The Dallas Museum of Art believe that visitors fall into categories as to why they visit museums and galleries on any particular day.  Here is a brief description of each type of visitor.

EXPLORER
“I came here because it interested me and I thought I’d like it.”
Motivated by personal curiosity.

FACILITATOR
“I came here primarily because others would like it or want to come.”
Motivated by other people.

EXPERIENCE SEEKER
“I came here because it was an attraction or thing to do in this community; its reputation.”
Motivated by desire to see and experience place.

PROFESSIONAL/HOBBYIST
“I came here primarily because it relates to my work or is something I pursue as a hobby.”
Motivated by specific knowledge-related goals.

RECHARGER
“I came here primarily because it will help me feel refreshed or focused or appreciative.”
Motivated by contemplative or restorative experience.

Which one are you?

- Nicole Knibb, Education Coordinator, McMaster Museum of Art

Get in the Scene at the McMaster Museum of Art!

Check out these great green screen photos!

In honour of Welcome Week on campus, the Museum hosted (from 10-3, so it’s still going as I write this) a special Green Screen Photo Booth event today. Visitors chose one of four backgrounds – all works of art from McMaster’s collection and, seconds later, received a printed copy of the photo which they then could share on line.

Many thanks to Derek and Jessica from Bizphoto; our awesome volunteers – Janice, Matt, Yoko and Yvonne; and everyone who visited our photo tent in front of the Museum and our Clubsfest table!