Andrew
Jackson: Little Burgundy
Evolving
Montreal series
Black
space: Resistance, resilience and the search for belonging
February
21 - September 28, 2025
The
Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum presents a new exhibition, a foray
into a south-western district of the city called Little Burgundy.
Over a two-year period, the photographer Andrew Jackson
documented
important landmarks for the Black community and met people who grew
up there and still have ties to the area, and also those who
live there now. The result is an exhibition featuring 61 photographs
of the individuals and sites that bear witness to the urban and
social transformations that have impacted Little Burgundy. In
addition, three hard-hitting yet touching short films capture local
residents’ lived experiences. The exhibition also features some
twenty objects and images selected by Andrew Jackson from the
Museum’s collection. These artefacts, juxtaposed with contemporary
objects loaned by residents, create a dialogue between the past and
the present.
Through this project, the photographer exposes the duality involved in designating a place or neighbourhood as a “Black space.” For Black people, it invokes a sense of security, freedom and belonging, while for non-Black persons it conveys a negative image. Andrew Jackson elaborated:
“When city spaces, such as Little Burgundy, are designated as Black spaces, there are profound implications for Black occupants. This is especially true in North America, where historically, in non-Black minds at least, Black spaces have not existed as places of acceptance or celebration of difference. Rather, they have been linked to notions of failure – notions that become catalysts for urban renewal, gentrification and the ensuing erasure of Black communities.”
Black
space: a pilgrimage site
As
part of his research carried out for the Evolving Montreal
photographic commission, Andrew Jackson investigated how Black spaces
– both physical and discursive – are experienced by Black
communities. He is especially interested in how these sites are
created and maintained, whether tangibly or symbolically, as
historically occupied physical spaces. His work highlights how these
spaces continue to exist in collective memory and how attachment to
them endures long after they have been obliterated by urban renewal
and the new communities moving in. As Andrew Jackson stated: “This
is so powerful that long after Black residents have left,
involuntarily or otherwise, they continue to make the pilgrimage of
return.”
Little
Burgundy
Although
the Black population today makes up only about 18% of the
neighbourhood’s 11,000 inhabitants, Little Burgundy remains an
important historical site for the community. As one of Quebec’s
first Black neighbourhoods, it offers a unique perspective on the
impact of urban renewal and gentrification on historic populations,
as experienced in Montreal and throughout North America in the 20th
century. While certain important gathering places like the Union
United Church – the oldest Black congregation in Canada – now
find themselves outside the neighbourhood’s contemporary borders,
they remain intimately linked to the history of the community that
founded and animated them.
Andrew
Jackson
Andrew
Jackson is a British-Canadian photographer based in Montreal since
2019. His practice is developed at the intersection of photography
and text and, most recently, focuses on notions of family,
transnational migration, displacement, trauma, war and collective
memory. He recently published the monograph From a Small Island, the
first chapter of his ongoing series Across the Sea Is a Shore, a
collection of works that explore the inter-generational legacies of
migration from the Caribbean to the UK. Jackson has a history of
developing platforms that provide opportunities for traditionally
excluded groups to engage with photography. In 2021 he created a
public engagement project in collaboration with the DESTA Black Youth
Network, located in Little Burgundy, which resulted in a group
exhibition shown at the PHI Foundation. His works are held in public
collections that include the United Kingdom’s Government Art
Collection, the Permanent Collection of the New Art Gallery Walsall
and the Autograph ABP and Light Work collections. His photographs
have also appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, The
Guardian, the Financial Times and The New Statesman.
Curatorial
and production team
An
exhibition produced by the McCord Stewart Museum.
Artist:
Andrew Jackson
Curator:
Zoë Tousignant, Curator, Photography, McCord Stewart Museum
Project
management: Eve Martineau, Coordinator, Exhibitions, McCord Stewart
Museum
Design:
David Martin
Audiovisual
production: Tomi Grgicevic
Programming
related to the exhibition
Round
table: Occupying Space, Shaping Community
Wednesday,
March 19, 2025, 6 to 7p.m. – At the Museum – Free In
collaboration with Art Souterrain
Little
Burgundy: Conversation with artist Andrew Jackson and Zoë Tousignant
Wednesday, May 28, 2025, 6 to 7p.m. – At the Museum – Free
Discussion
workshop on Black spaces in Montreal: Speaking Up, Speaking Out
Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 6 to 7:30p.m. – At the Museum –
Free
Evolving
Montreal series
McCord
Stewart Museum’s
President and CEO Anne Eschapasse stated:
“After
Robert Walker, who photographed Griffintown, and Joannie Lafrenière,
who captured Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, we’ve commissioned Andrew
Jackson to explore the urban transformations that have occurred in
Little Burgundy, as well as its residents’ experiences and memories
of such transformations, as part of our Evolving Montreal series. The
resulting exhibition is an opportunity to discover Montreal’s Black
communities and a neighbourhood whose identity was irrevocably
altered in the name of ‘urban renewal’ in the late 1960s and
1970s.”
Consult
the previous 2 Evolving Montreal Series exhibitions:
1.
Robert Walker, who photographed Griffintown, here.
2.
Joannie Lafrenière, who captured Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, here.
All photos @ Nadia Slejskova
The dedicated internets address of this article or click on the title above the first photo at the top.
