McCord 2024: Costume Balls

Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870–1927

November 4, 2024 - March 9, 2025

Tthe Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum with its new exhibition Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870–1927 introduces the public to the world of fancy dress balls, some dating back 150 years.

The exhibition captures the splendour and extravagance of such events, with guests transforming themselves into a colourful array of characters for an evening. Over 40 dazzling costumes from the Museum’s collection, as well as photographs of costumed ball-goers, souvenir publications and programs, capture the scope and pageantry of those prestigious occasions.

Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870–1927 opens its doors on the centenary of one of such grand balls that was held on November 14, 1924 at the Mount Royal Hotel in Montreal. This exhibition is presented by La Presse and in collaboration with LaSalle College Montréal, a member of LCI Education.

A focus on history

While ball-goers in search of ideas drew from many aspects of popular culture to choose their characters, the exhibition highlights the predominance of history as a source of inspiration. The many photographs featured in the exhibition reveal guests’ enthusiasm for embodying figures from Canada’s past at historically themed balls.

Immortalizing the event for a lifetime

A visit to the photographer’s studio was a must for those attending a fancy dress ball or skating carnival, so they could create lasting momentous of themselves in the costumes made for these often once-in-a-lifetime social events. Visitors to the exhibition will find many portraits made by William Notman of Montreal and William J. Topley of Ottawa, who ran the leading photo studios of the time.

Cynthia Cooper, the exhibition’s curator, stated:

“This exhibition tells an extraordinary story by bringing together some of the most extraordinary material in the Museum’s collections. Rarely do visitors get a chance to see so many garments from the 19th century (that survived in spite of being created to last a single evening) in an exhibition space, alongside images of the people who wore those costumes. And rarely do we see captured in photography such a lighthearted side of life from a time when public presentation of the self was a most serious matter.”  

Remarkable research project

The exhibition is the culmination of research into the practice of fancy dress, begun over 30 years ago by Cynthia Cooper, Head, Collections and Research and Curator, Dress, Fashion and Textiles, long before she joined the McCord Stewart Museum in 1998. Her work with the Museum’s extensive collections has enabled her to make some astonishing discoveries related to this topic, the latest of which are now being presented to the public for the first time in the exhibition and the catalogue.

Putting 40 costumes from the McCord Stewart Museum’s renowned Dress, Fashion and Textiles collection on display required a colossal effort from the Museum’s team. The limits of traditional conservation practice had to be pushed to allow all the costumes to be displayed, as Caterina Florio, Head, Conservation, explained:

“Given the fragile—or even damaged—condition of some garments, we took a long, hard look at the approaches we could take. This led us not only to question traditional conservation treatments, but also to make bold decisions and experiment with new ideas for preserving material integrity.” 

Andrew McNally, Dean of Fashion at LaSalle College stated

“While Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870–1927  shines a spotlight on the extravagance of period costumes, students completing their studies in Costume specialization within the Fashion Design program will be given the opportunity to create contemporary designs inspired by the theme of the exhibition for presentation at a related Museum event. This unique collaboration between LaSalle College Montréal, a member of LCI Education, and the McCord Stewart Museum embodies the essence of tradition and innovation. The initiative not only emphasizes the historical legacy of the exhibition, it showcases how young designers are taking a creative, modern approach to passing on expertise.” 

The book Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870–1927

Edited by Cynthia Cooper. Photographs by Laura Dumitriu.

Co-publishers: McCord Stewart Museum and 5 Continents Edition

288 pp., hardback, available in English and French versions

CAD $65.00

On sale at the Museum Boutique

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All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information about current exhibitions and special evens associated with this exhibition, visit the McCord Stewart Museum website.

MMFA 2024: UUMMAQUTIK-ESSENCE OF LIFE

UUMMAQUTIK: ESSENCE OF LIFE

ᐆᒻᒪᖁᑎᒃ

A new presentation of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art's Inuit art collection

Starting on November 8, 2024

With this exhibition, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) invites the public to experience Inuit art in newly conceived premises. Shown in brightly lit renovated and modernized galleries totalling 200 m² on the ground floor of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion, ᐆᒻᒪᖁᑎᒃ uummaqutik: essence of life doubles the Museum's exhibition space dedicated to Inuit art.

Conceived by Inuk artist and curator Asinnajaq, this new presentation of the Museum's Inuit art collection prompts the visitors to meditate on the rhythms of life particular to the circumpolar territories known together as Inuit Nunangat (Inuit homelands in Canada). It brings together works dating from 1949 to today that demonstrate richness and diversity in contemporary Inuit artistic expression.

Prioritizing a bold storytelling approach, this evolving display will be periodically updated over the next five years, allowing the public to admire a rotation of some 120 works by 70 Inuit artists from Nunavik, Nunavut, Nunatsiavut, and the Inuvialuit Nunangat. Many of the works are being presented at the Museum for the first time.

ᐆᒻᒪᖁᑎᒃ uummaqutik: essence of life

This inaugural presentation of uummaqutik comprises 60 works from the MMFA's collection – prints, drawings, textile works, photographs, paintings, sculptures and installations – by artists such as Siku Allooloo, Darcie Bernhardt, Lucassie Echalook, Charlie Alakkariallak Inukpuk, Niap, Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, Joe Talirunili and Jessica Winters, not to mention the eye-popping motorbike sidecar by Mattiusi Iyaituk and Etienne Guay, on loan from Avataq Cultural Institute, as well as a selection of works that are promised gifts from Lois and Daniel Miller. Later on, the space will also feature works by Kudluajuk Ashoona, Shuvinai Ashoona, Annie Pootoogook and Johnny Pootoogook, among other renowned artists.

In addition, artist Couzyn van Heuvelen has created Qulliq (2024), the MMFA's second Indigenous art commission this year. This impressive glass sculpture, whose shape and title embody the qulliq oil lamp, widely used by Inuit, is also the artist's first work to enter the Museum collection.

The energy that unites living beings and transforms our universe

Through these artforms, artists share with visitors their views on the simple and at times extraordinary moments of life, including childbirth, child rearing, everyday activities and seasonal community work. Together, the works on view portray these moments as a sharing and transmission of energy between humans and all other living beings with whom they coexist, including the plants, stones and stars.

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All photos @Nadia Slejskova

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Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your tickets online.

PAC 2025: Witches

WITCHES - OUT OF THE SHADOW

October 25, 2024 - April 6, 2025

Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal’s archaeology and history complex, presents its new exhibition, an immersion into the little-known history of witches and their mysterious world. From marginalized figures, learn how these women influence popular culture and asserted their presence through the centuries. This experience of intersecting myths and reality reveals the essence of witches. 

For Halloween, the Museum is holding a special evening event, Witches’ Night Out. An out-of-the-ordinary experience in the heart of the archaeological remains, offering an immersive exploration of the exhibition and an introduction to the world of witchcraft. Thursday, October 31, 2024, from 7 pm to 1 am.

Evil, helpful, victim or rebel… the witch is a figure whose representations have evolved over the centuries and in our collective imagination. Against this backdrop, this exhibition takes visitors on a journey through 400 objects from the private and institutional collections of over 30 European and North American museums. They represent witnesses of the history of witches and their world.

Witch Hunting – A Historical Reality

In exploring the era of witch hunts in the 16th and 17th centuries, when tens of thousands of women were persecuted and executed, the exhibition takes a tangible approach to the construction of the myth of the diabolical witch: this woman responsible for illness, death, and all other manner of ills in a society in crisis. This historical immersion into Europe and North America allows to pull back the veil on the practices and trials that saw close to 100,000 women meet tragic fates, from banishment to the stake. Among the pieces on display is a copy of the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), the misogynistic and ell-known treatise that played a key role in legitimizing and intensifying the practice of witch hunting.

Ancestral Know-How and Esoteric Practices

The world of witchcraft is an open window onto a broad spectrum of know-how and practices. From knowledge of medicinal plants to the art of divination, visitors are invited to explore the rituals of sorcery through a vast array of symbolic objects. Pendulums, crystals, tarot cards, and herbariums—the artifacts that reveal the powers attributed to the practices of sorcery, such as healing, enchantment, protection, and predicting the future.

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All Photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information on the current exhibitions, activities and programs, visit the PAC Museum's website.

This article's dedicated internet address, or click on the title above the very first photo.

McCord 2024: Manasie Akpaliapik

MANASIE AKPALIAPIK: Inuit Universe

Immersion in the legends of the Far North

October 4, 2024 - March 9, 2025

The Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum presents a new exhibition, organized and circulated by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and adapted by the McCord Stewart Museum. It features the contemporary artist from Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay) on Baffin Island (Nunavut). It features sculptures from the remarkable Inuit art collection of the late Raymond Brousseau and offers a unique insight into the work of Manasie Akpaliapik.

Considered one of the most gifted artists of his generation, Manasie Akpaliapik uses his favourite materials – whale bone, caribou antler and stone – to create works inspired by oral tradition, cultural values, the supernatural world, as well as the wildlife and environment of the Arctic. Drawing from the mythology of the world of snow and ice in which he grew up, the artist turns to nature for inspiration and raw material, from which his unique, captivating and multidimensional works emerge spontaneously. Manasie Akpaliapik doesn’t plan what his works will look like. He combines materials and his sculptures emerge as individual and unique narratives. His fascination with whale bone - his medium of choice, though particularly rare and difficult to access - adds to the uniqueness of his works.

For five decades, Manasie Akpaliapik’s creations have been objects of fascination. Visitors will discover 40 of the artist’s sculptures at this exhibition. They tell a fragment of the story of the Inuit people and inspire reflection at a time when the relationship between humanity, nature, and climate is at the front-page. Wildlife, the tales and legends of the North of the sea goddess Talilayuq and the sacred Owl, as well as the shamanism, the transmission of knowledge and the Arctic environment are embodied in an impressive amalgam of materials that characterizes each of Manasie Akpaliapik’s creations.

Manasie Akpaliapik elaborated:

“Everything that I am doing is trying to capture some of the culture of our traditions, about simple things like hunting, wearing traditional clothing, and using legends. I feel that the only way we can preserve the culture is if people see it.”

Daniel Drouin, curator of the exhibition, stated:

“A virtuoso with hammer Manasie Akpaliapik is without doubt one of the most important sculptors of his generation. Equipped with both a masterful sense of material and technical perfection, the artist has succeeded in infusing his work with a highly personal reaction to the upheavals and transformations of his world, the Canadian Far North, and the people around him. At once humble, simple and reserved, Manasie transforms the bones found in the Arctic soil into inspiring stories. His mission: to transmit a sense of pride to succeeding generations.”

Manasie Akpaliapik grew up in Irpiarjuk on Baffin Island. In the 1980s, he migrated to southern Canada, first to Montreal, then later to the Greater Toronto Area. Although he works from his studio in the “South,” his materials come almost exclusively from the Far North. Every year he returns there since his creative process hinges on the use and combination of materials gathered from the ground in the region where he was born. The forty works presented in the exhibition, with a few exceptions, are entirely made from a combination of materials collected during his annual trips to Nunavut. As he explained:

“My art helps me preserve my connection between north and south, and thus helps me find my place between the Western world and Inuit culture.”

Art as salvation

While Manasie Akpaliapik’s work reflects Inuit history and traditions, it also touches on his own personal story with a profoundly human and universal sensitivity. Art becomes a means of expressing the challenges he has had to overcome, but also of externalizing the demons he has long battled. In his own words: 

“When life gets really tough, my art is always there to pull me up."

His exceptional work demonstrates the influence of contemporary art and culture.

Anne Eschapasse, McCord Stewart Museum President and CEO stated:

“As the custodians of a collection that bears witness to nearly 12,000 years of Indigenous history and presence on the land, the McCord Stewart Museum has long worked to highlight the vitality and diversity of contemporary Inuit, First Nations and Métis artists. Thanks to our collaboration with the Musée national des beaux-arts duQuébec, we are delighted to be able to present the work of Manasie Akpaliapik, who is unquestionably one of the greats of his generation.”

Manasie Akpaliapik

With a career spanning four decades and his art displayed in institutions such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Civilization, and several private galleries, Manasie has created art inspired by his deep love for animals and for Inuit legends and their narratives in which the relationship between humans and animals is one of mutual respect.

Manasie is also a practised drum dancer, drum maker and is versed in kayak building. He continues to travel to the Arctic every year to search the shores for ancient whale bones and to connect with his family and community. He enjoys passing the Inuit legends to the younger generation and works tirelessly to keep the oral tradition of storytelling alive.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information about current exhibitions and special evens associated with this exhibition, visit the McCord Stewart Museum website.

For this article's dedicated internet address click on the title above the very first image or here.