Métiers d’art 2023

Salon des Métiers d’art 2023

Montreal Annual Arts and Crafts Show

67th Edition

December 7 - 17, 2023

The  Métiers d’art 2023 returns to the Palais des congrès de Montréa this yearl. It's importance, especially during the holiday season, is to highlight Quebec know-how, encourage its transmission, and to supports creativity and innovation. By far the largest show for locally made products in Canada, the Salon des Métiers d'Art du Québec is the best place to meet artists and craftspeople in the arts and crafts, whose work is distinguished by their skillful and exceptional qualities.

This year, the Salon des crafts d’art du Québec (SMAQ) is celebrating its 67th Edition. More than 215 professional artisans from four corners of Quebec invite visitors to prepare for the holidays at the Palais des congrès de Montréal under the theme “Find local art”. The intension is, to make the visitors to fall under the spell of the talent and know-how of the Quebec creations. This Edition, as always, is festive, urban, fashionable and eco-responsible. Workshops, conferences and exhibitions will also be part of the event, also featuring meetings, exchanges and passionate artisans.

Salon des Métiers d'Art du Québec is the best place to meet artists and craftsmen whose work is distinguished by exceptional qualities.

Marc Douesnard, an artistic ironworker and the President of the CMAQ board of directors, stated:

"Quebec artisans are recognized worldwide for their exceptional know-how and immense creativity. Seize the opportunity to participate in the co-creation of future artistic trends by establishing privileged links with those who imagine the trends of tomorrow."

The flavors pavilion highlights the quality of products that are the pride of Quebec producers, processors and passionate chefs in our. The architecture and heritage pavilion allows the public to discover professions specializing in heritage conservation and restoration interventions, such as stone cutters or art blacksmiths.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All Photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information in this years show, visit the Salon des métiers d’art de Montréal website.

PAC 2023: St. Lawrence River

THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER - ECHOES FROM THE SHORES

MULTI-SENSORY EXPERIENCE

November 30, 2023 - March 3, 2024

Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex, is offering visitors a multi-sensory exhibition that will immerse them in the full majesty of the St. Lawrence River and its thousands facets. This immense waterway, one of Canada’s longest rivers, has been a true axis of communication between diverse riverside communities and the millions of people who live on and visit its banks.

The exhibition showcases the immeasurable wealth of the St. Lawrence, which has been designated as a historic heritage site by the National Assembly. To tell the river’s story, Pointe-à-Callière has put together a corpus of 300 significant objects drawn from rich Quebec museum collections mainly from the Musée maritime du Québec, Capitaine J.E. Bernier, and the Musée de la civilisation - Québec as well as from its own collections.

The ten-stop visit traces the river’s rich history and explores its vast territory through themes such as river transportation, naval construction, shipwrecks, shipping methods, battles and conquests, different types of fishing, leisure activities, tourism and environmental issues. Along the way, projected images, textures, smells and sounds will engage the senses in fond memories that recall the beauty of this priceless natural treasure!

Anne Élisabeth Thibault, Executive Director of Pointe-à-Callière. Stated:

“In keeping with our mission to promote the Montréal of yesterday and today, this exhibition gives a multidisciplinary perspective of the majestic waterway that gave rise to Montréal’s birth and development. The river is an essential access route and, even today, it has positioned Montréal as a key hub of international trade. The St. Lawrence has always led to the economic and socio-cultural development of its riverside communities, and millions of people’s lives have depended on its shores. The history of this natural jewel, which is intrinsically linked to our city, deserves to be explored,” explained Anne Élisabeth Thibault, Executive Director of Pointe-à-Callière.”

A GATEWAY TO THE INTERIOR CONTINENT

First Nations people have used the river’s banks for millennia, drawn sustenance from its resources, and used its waters to travel, trade and communicate. In the New France era, the St. Lawrence was a gateway to the inner North American continent for explorers and the backbone of the network that made up the fur trade. During the French Regime, the river’s configuration dictated where settlers could set up their villages, meaning that Québec City, Trois-Rivières and Montréal were all born out of and developed from their specific landscape geographical settings and geometry.

A pivotal moment in the history of the river and Montréal was the construction of the Lachine Canal. As the first in a chain gradually linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, the canal let ships bypass the Lachine Rapids, a major obstacle to shipping. Since then, Montréal’s incredible expansion has been closely linked to the St. Lawrence River,

SHOWCASED ITEMS

The objects to discover include the majestic Lady Edmonton figurehead from the Edmonton  three-masted vessel; models of ships such as the RMS Empress of Ireland, the CSDL Tadoussac, and the CGS Mikula icebreaker; artifacts from shipwrecks such as the Elizabeth and Mary; accessories and clothing, including the cap of famous Quebec sailor Joseph-Elzéar Bernier; a diving suit; and naval construction tools. The exhibition also features commemorative objects that point to key sites along the river’s trajectory and that come from battles fought on the waterway, such as Sir William Phips’ attempt to conquer Quebec in 1690 and the Battle of the St. Lawrence during the Second World War.

In addition to these artifacts that raise the curtain on part of the river’s history, the exhibition features astonishing archival images, compelling testimonials, and rich documentary materials. Works that illustrate how the river has always been a source of infinite inspiration include the musical opus Flore Laurentienne by Gaspé composer Mathieu David Gagnon, which accompanies the exhibition’s final stop: a masterful projection by Silent Partners Studio of a dreamlike voyage on the St. Lawrence.

Influencing both its environment and the communities that use it, the river is presented in a setting that matches its immensity and portrays its future challenges, including its preservation for future generations.

The waves of the St. Lawrence await!

MORE ACTIVITIES

Lectures

To accompany the temporary exhibition The St. Lawrence River, Echoes from the Shores, Pointe-à-Callière is organizing two lectures on the exhibition’s different aspects and theme

The river and its shipwrecks 

The story of the wrecks of the Elisabeth and Mary (1690), RMS Empress of Ireland (1914), and other underwater sites will illustrate the vast array of contexts and lessons that maritime archaeology has to teach us.

Sunday, December 10, 2023 at 1 pm

Discovering the majestic St. Lawrence 

St. Lawrence enthusiast Serge Lepage will tell stories about how the river’s unique characteristics and complex environment make it home to exceptional plant and wildlife and how this river helped develop the northeast part of the continent. He will also discuss the environmental impacts of human activities on the quality of its waters as well as new threats to its ecosystems.

Sunday, January 28, 2024 at 1 pm

Cultural activities

As a holiday treat, families can take part in creative workshops related to the exhibition between 1 pm and 4 pm from December 26 to 30, 2023 and from January 2 to 6, 2024. Enjoy painting and arts and crafts and build a model lighthouse!

Click on images to enlarge them.

All Photos @ Nadia Slejskova

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

McCord Stewart 2023: Holidays Activities

LAUNCH DAY

November 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Montreal's McCord Stewart Museum is throwing open its doors for the launch of its holiday programming, celebrating the traditions well appreciated by Montrealers at this time of year. Public is invited to reconnect with their inner child as they discover or rediscover Ogilvy’s mechanical Christmas window displays, and admire an enchanting dolls’ castle where the guests of an 18th-century held dance events in their finest attire.  

On the program on this special day: free access to all exhibitions, storytelling, guided tours, workshops to create snowy landscapes, children’s face-painting as well as many other surprises for the whole family!

Café Notman is also joining in the festivities, with free hot chocolate for everyone at the Museum on that day (while supplies last). The Museum Boutique is offering a 25% discount on children’s books on the Launch day.

For more information visit the McCord Stewart Museum website for Launch Day.

HOLIDAYS ACIVITIES

Check the museum's Holidays Activities scheduled  from November 25 to January 7, 2023.

MMFA 2023: Françoise Sullivan

Françoise SULLIVAN
I Let Rhythms Flow

The exhibition bringing together new and earlier works of the artist

November 1, 2023 – February 18, 2024

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the life of Françoise Sullivan, a figurehead of modern art and a pioneer of Quebec dance. For this occasion, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is celebrating the vibrant career of this multidisciplinary artist and her influence on the contemporary art landscape with an exhibition of her recent paintings along with her previous works from the Museum's collection.

Sullivan's style is characterized by a specific command of colour and its intensity, as well as expressive and rhythmic brushwork. The exhibition "I let rhythms flow" reveals a selection of paintings the artist has created over the past two years, which are a continuation of the abstract monochromatic works she began in the 1980s. It also includes large-scale pastels from the 1990s that were recently found in her archives. In addition, she is presenting an imposing painted aluminum sculpture that is a large-scale reproduction of a Plexiglas work she produced in 1968.

The exhibition also covers the defining periods in Sullivan's nearly eighty-year art career by presenting some of her works that are in the MMFA's collection that number in total close to fifty. At the artist's request, the exhibition's anchor point is the diptych Homage to Paterson (2003) from her series "Homage," shown for the first time at the Museum's retrospective of her work in 2003.

Stéphane Aquin, Director of the MMFA, states:

"Twenty years after her retrospective at the MMFA, this exhibition highlights Françoise Sullivan's current, very active, painting practice. It pays tribute to this great Quebec artist whose outstandingly prolific career has spanned multiple art forms without ever straying from her initial inspiration: the quest for a present without limits. We are thrilled to be presenting this recent work to the public, which speaks to an extraordinary energy and a sensitivity that is as keen as ever."

Florence-Agathe Dubé Moreau, guest curator:

"Fittingly for a career that's always been fueled by a desire to experiment, the quest for new, uncharted territory became the clear choice as the central theme of the exhibition. Indeed, Françoise Sullivan shows up at her studio every day, curious to see where the brushstrokes, colours and forms will lead her. To her, painting is like an improvisational dance or automatism that frees subconscious forces and transforms colour into feeling. Painting is movement – a movement that connects art and life."

About the artist

Born in Montreal in 1923, Françoise Sullivan has had a major influence on the history of art through her contribution to Canadian modern dance. She was also a pioneer for her exceptional ability to switch from one discipline to another, moving between dance, sculpture, performance, conceptual art, photography and painting.

As a member of the Automatistes collective, she signed the Refus global manifesto in 1948, alongside Paul-Émile Borduas. In it, she published one of the first philosophical essays on dance in Quebec, titled La danse et l'espoir [Dance and Hope], as well as the photographs Dance in the Snow, taken by Maurice Perron. Improvised in the Quebec countryside, this piece departed from precepts of classical ballet for the sake of radically liberated movement. Reflecting on this choreographic exploration, Sullivan later wrote, "I let rhythms flow," the line where this exhibition gets its title

Her work has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States and Europe, including On Line at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York (2010-2011) and Surrealism Beyond Borders, presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York (2021-2022) and at the Tate Modern, in London (2022). She has earned the highest distinctions, namely a Governor General's Award in Visual Arts and the title of Officer of the Order of Canada.

Credits and curatorial team
An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

It is curated by Stéphane Aquin, Director of the MMFA, and Florence-Agathe Dubé-Moreau, guest curator.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

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

Visit the the MontrealMuseum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your ticket online.

Also check out my previous article about Françoise Sullivan's exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) in 2018.

McCord Stewart 2023: Beads of Diplomacy

Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy

A Canadian Exclusive

Bearing witness to more than two centuries of diplomatic exchange between the nations of North America

October 20, 2023 - March 10, 2024

The Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum presents a new exhibition Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy. For the first time, this unique exhibition brings together over 40 wampum belts from public and private collections in Quebec, Canada and Europe.

Wampum are objects made from shell beads that were exchanged for over two centuries (from the early 17th to the early 19th century) during diplomatic meetings between nations in northeastern America, including European nations. Also, some 40 cultural objects from the same period also help to contextualize and explain their fundamental role. 

Cultural and political symbols

The exhibition invites visitors to explore the cultural and political symbolism of wampum. These objects were the physical representation of words, agreements or laws that had to accompany any accord or talk between nations. Spoken words were only considered sincere if accompanied by wampum. These “belts of truth” therefore served to materialize the word, to confirm it and to seal alliances. Visitors will be able to understand the fundamental role of wampum in relations between Indigenous and European nations, the relationship between these objects and geopolitical issues in Canadian history, and their significance and influence today.

Jonathan Lainey, Curator, Indigenous Cultures, and lead curator of the exhibition, stated:

“Since wampum are valuable and coveted objects that bear witness to international alliances at the very heart of Canada, it’s important that we better understand them. We believe that putting on display the majority of wampum preserved in Canadian institutions will spark discussion and provoke thought. We hope this exhibition will create opportunities for gathering and exchange, just as wampum did in the past.”

In addition, the Museum is continuing its mission to amplify contemporary Indigenous voices by inviting the public to discover the work of contemporary artists Hannah Claus, Nadia Myre, Teharihulen Michel Savard and Skawennati, inspired by wampum, and to hear anecdotes from members of several nations through a series of videos.

International collaboration

Developed and co-produced with the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris, the exhibition was first presented in Paris and then at the Seneca Art and Culture Center in Victor, New York. The only stop in Canada, the Montreal presentation brings together the largest selection of cultural belongings: it includes 13 wampum from the McCord Stewart Museum collection, as well as the wampum belt presented by the Kanesatake community to Pope Gregory XVI, which has not been repatriated since 1831. Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to view wampum and related objects – medals, weapons, ornaments, moccasins, maps, engravings, books, etc. – from the Museum’s own collection (66), as well as from the collections of the Canadian Museum of History (11), Parks Canada (3), the Bank of Canada Museum (5), the Musée de la civilisation (8), the Centre d’Archives Régionales du Séminaire de Nicolet (3), the Musée Huron-Wendat (1), the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris (18) and the Trésor de la Cathédrale de Chartres (2).*

*Important: The wampum coming from the Vatican will be on display in the exhibition until December 4, and those from the Trésor de la Cathédrale de Chartes until January 14.

Publications

To accompany the exhibition, the McCord Stewart Museum has published an 81-page illustrated booklet, both a souvenir of the exhibition and a reference on the history and significance of wampum. The booklet features photos of twelve wampum necklaces and other related objects held by the McCord Stewart Museum, as well as excerpts of texts taken from the exhibition. Available exclusively at the Museum Boutique for $19.

Issue 33 of Gradhiva magazine, produced in conjunction with the exhibition at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris, will also be available at the Museum Boutique. Titled Wampum : les perles de la diplomatie, it contains several essays on

This exhibition is made possible with the support of the Terra Foundation for American Art. This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada, with the support of the Consulate General of France in Quebec City.

Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy Symposium

Thursday, February 22, and Friday, February 23, 2024, all day – Free – At the Museum

Taking advantage of the unprecedented context created by the exhibition Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy, the Museum will be holding a symposium devoted to wampum, bringing together Quebec, Canadian and international specialists from a variety of disciplines who have studied these unique objects and the social, political and religious practices that surround them. This forum will promote the de-compartmentalization of research: between disciplines, between museums and universities, between community knowledge-bearers and Indigenous studies departments.

Registration for the symposium will open at a later date.

This first ever major exhibition devoted to wampum belts was possible thanks to the unprecedented collaboration between the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris and the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal, in addition to generous support of public and private institutions in Quebec, Canada and abroad, as well as private individuals who agreed to provide key cultural assets from their personal collections.

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 photo.