Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Canada's oldest and one of its most important arts institutions, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal) has been guided by a commitment to attract people from all walks of life. Established in 1847, originally under the name of Montréal Society of Artists, it became the Art Association in 1860. In 1948-49, the association formed a new corporation under its present name. In 1972, it became a semipublic institution, largely funded by grants from different government levels.

First installed in a building on Phillips Square, the museum moved in 1912 to a new building on Sherbrooke St. West. Architects Edward and W.S. Maxwell conceived the plan in neoclassical style, much in vogue at that time. In 1976, a new wing by architect Fred LEBENSOLD was opened. In 1991, the opening of its south pavilion, Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion (architect Moshe SAFDIE), added considerable gallery space, educational and support areas to the museum, permitting the institution to exhibit more of the permanent collection and providing much-needed space for its temporary exhibitions. The new pavilion housed a boutique as well as a bookstore, a restaurant and a snackbar.

A fourth pavilion, which will be dedicated to Canadian and Québec art, is scheduled to open in 2011, along with a concert hall that houses a rare collection of Tiffany stained glass. At that time, the museum's collections will be reinstalled in the three other pavilions, which will be dedicated to ancient cultures, European and contemporary art, and decorative arts and design.

Over the past 150 years, the museum has assembled one of North America's finest encyclopedic collections, totalling over 33 000 objects, from antiquity till now, most of them prestigious donations from the great families of Montréal. The collection includes Decorative Arts, Canadian Art and Inuit Art, International Art, Prints and Drawings, Old Master Paintings, and Modern and Contemporary Art, as well as important collections of ancient textiles and English porcelain, and the world's largest collection of Japanese incense boxes.

In the 1980s, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts launched a major campaign to conquer a large audience through several large-scale exhibitions. Since then, "Pablo Picasso: Meeting in Montréal,""Leonardo da Vinci, Engineer and Architect,""Marc Chagall,""Salvador Dali,""The 1920s: The Age of the Metropolis,""Lost Paradise: Symbolist Europe," "Warhol Live: Music and Dance in Andy Warhol's Work," and "Van Dongen: Painting the Town Fauve," to name a few, have drawn visitors from across Canada and around the world, earning the museum an international reputation. Today, the museum attracts on average over 600 000 visitors a year.

The museum presents important temporary exhibitions all year long. Various lectures, films and concerts take place in the auditorium in connection with the exhibitions. Guided tours are offered to the public. In 2009, music was introduced as an integral part of the museum's programs, providing another perspective on the visual arts through musical audioguides and other innovative activities. These are organized in co-operation with the new Arte Musica Foundation.

Author MICHEL CHAMPAGNE

Links to Other Sites
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The official web site of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts expands to house Hornstein collection
A CBC Neews story about a major expansion of the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.