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Musée des Beaux Arts-Museum of Fine Arts There are two pavillions, the newest one is on the south side of Sherbrooke and it’s connected by a underground passageway to the older building, known as the Benaiah Gibb building. The temporary exhibitions are mostly at the Jean-Noel Desmarais building and parts of the permanent exhibition are on the 3rd (don’t miss the Otto Dix painting there) and the 4th floor (some Impressionists, medieval art and decorative objects). The rest of the permanent collection (collection of canadian artists) and other temporary exhibitions can be found at the Benaiah Gibb building. There’s also a small collection of african masks in the passageway between the two buildings (basement level). You can buy your tickets for the special exhibitions at either pavillions and the permanent collection is free (it is suggested that you give a fair donation to the museum). There’s a small but complete book store with books on ... art and the museum’s boutique at the Desmarais building. The boutique has a good selection of art posters as well as the usual museum boutique merchandise (including some reproductions of objects from other museums like the Louvres). For more information on the museum, visit the excellent web site. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, true to its vocation of acquiring and promoting the work of Canadian and international artists past and present, has a mission to attract the broadest and most heterogeneous public possible, and to provide that public with first-hand
access to a universal artistic heritage. One of the first museums in North America to amass an encyclopedic collection worthy of the name, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has, over the past 144 years, has built up a collection of over 30,000 objects - painting, sculpture, works on paper, prints and drawings, photographs and decorative art objects - from Antiquity to today. Year after year, the Museum continues to acquire new works to enrich its collections of Ancient Cultures, European Art, Canadian Art, Inuit and Amerindian Art, Contemporary Art and Decorative Arts. In order to make our cultural heritage accessible to the greatest number of people, the Museum has adopted a policy of free admission to its galleries displaying works from the collections.
Musée d’art contemporain The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal was founded by the Québec government in 1964. At first, the museum was a department within Québec’s ministère des Affaires culturelles. In 1983, the government changed the museum’s status, making it an autonomous body with its own Board of Directors. Our mission is to promote and preserve contemporary Québec art as well as Canadian and international contemporary art, through exhibitions and numerous other cultural activities. The Musée moved to the heart of downtown on May 28, 1992. Truly a museum for the twenty-first century, the Musée d’art contemporain
is part of the Place des Arts, Canada’s only cultural complex devoted to both the performing and visual arts. A major Canadian institution dedicated exclusively to contemporary art, the Musée offers a varied program ranging from presentations of its Permanent Collection to exhibitions of works by Québec, Canadian and international artists. The Permanent Collection comprises some 7,000 works, including the largest collection of art by Paul-Émile Borduas. Through Education and Documentation Department, the museum presents a host of educational activities further to connect the general public with contemporary art. The Musée also stages numerous multimedia events, including performance, new dance, experimental theatre, contemporary music, video and film. Discover today›s art created by living artists using the most current media... The Musée d›art contemporain de Montréal is a provincially owned corporation funded by the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec and receives additional financial support for some exhibitions from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts.
McCord Museum Inaugurated in 1921, the McCord embodies the vision of a passionate collector, David Ross McCord, whose abiding wish was to shed light on the history and cultures of his country and thus bring its people together. A Museum
Born of a Montrealer’s Dream In 1878, David Ross McCord began adding to the already considerable collection assembled by his family since their arrival in Canada. Sparing neither time nor money, he combed the length and breadth of the country in search of the finest and most historically significant objects. Gradually, a plan began to take shape in his mind: that of founding a national history museum in Montreal, then Canada’s metropolis. On October 13, 1921, the McCord National Museum opened its doors, housed in a building provided by McGill University. Both its collection and its reputation grew rapidly. A Museum Supported by Montrealers The citizens of Montreal, heirs to the passion of David Ross McCord, encouraged the Museum’s development. McGill University administered the McCord for over sixty years, until it became a private museum. Leading members of the community, including the families of Walter M. Stewart, T.H.P. Molson and J. W. McConnell, lent their steadfast and generous support to the Museum’s various activities and, with additional government backing, made possible the recent renovation of its building. Today, the McCord is supported by the governments of Canada, Quebec and Montreal, and by a large network of members, donors and sponsors. A Museum for all Montrealers David Ross McCord wanted to make history accessible to all. His dream has become the McCord’s mission - a mission whose importance is reaffirmed each year by thousands of visitors.
The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) was founded in 1979 as a new form of cultural institution to build public awareness of the role of architecture in society, promote scholarly research in the field, and stimulate innovation in design practice. The CCA is an international research centre and museum founded on the conviction that architecture is a public concern. Based on its extensive collections, the CCA is a leading voice in advancing knowledge, promoting public understanding, and widening thought and debate on the art of architecture, its history, theory, practice, and role in society today. Over 30 years ago, architect Phyllis Lambert began the collection that would become the cornerstone of the CCA. In addition to being founding director of the institution, Phyllis Lambert is Chair of its Board of Trustees. Today the CCA Collection, comprising works dating from the Renaissance to the present day, documents the culture of architecture throughout the world – past, present, and future. It provides evidence in depth of cultural and intellectual circles of the past, points to the future of architectural thinking and practice, and reveals the changing character of thought and observation pertaining to architecture. Unparalleled in scope, the Prints & Drawings, Photographs, Archives, and Library comprise of dynamically interrelated bodies of primary and secondary materials that advance thinking about the nature of the built domain and the ideas that underlie it.
Exhibitions and Public and Educational Programs forge links between architectural thinking and practice, the history of ideas, and changing social and cultural conditions. Programs are both local and international in scope. They interpret architectural ideas to the wider public at all age-levels as well as to architects and scholars, aiming to reveal the richness of architectural and urban culture and to stimulate dynamic engagement with contemporary issues and debates. The CCA shares the site of the historic Shaughnessy House built in 1874 to the design of William T. Thomas. The new building, designed by Peter Rose with consulting architect Phyllis Lambert and associate architect Erol Argun, was integrated with the Shaughnessy House in 1989 The CCA Garden restores the urban fabric of an area deeply scarred by mid-20th-century highway engineering. Initiated as part of the Québec government’s program for the integration of art and architecture into the landscape, the garden faces the CCA from the south side of boulevard René-Lévesque. The garden is laid out as a series of narrative episodes – Orchard, Meadow, Arcade (mirror of the Shaughnessy House), Esplanade, Belvedere, and Allegorical Columns – each of which relates to the wider history of architecture as well as to the city that surrounds the site.