2024-2025 Cultural Calendar – Stories, Testimonies, Activities and Community

The city, diversity and history are at the heart of the McCord Stewart Museum’s 2024-2025 programming

Montreal, August 28, 2024 – In 2024-2025, the Museum continues its mission to tell the stories of the people and communities that make up our city, drawing on its remarkable collections and showcasing them through distinctive, engaging museum experiences. In addition to its award-winning permanent exhibition Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience, the Museum will present five new exhibitions: To All the Unnamed Women by artist-in-residence Michaëlle Sergile, Manasie Akpaliapik. Inuit Universe, Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870-1927, Evolving Montreal: Andrew Jackson, and Pounding the Pavement: Montreal Street Photography.

The Museum has planned an exciting lineup of activities for the whole year. Over the weekend of September 28 and 29, the Museum will host several activities to mark the Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, including a screening of the film Atikamekw Suns, directed by Chloé Leriche, and the launch of Journal of a Travelling Girl, a book by Nadine Neema. The City Talks lecture series, organized in partnership with Héritage Montréal, is back for a 13th year. With free admission for visitors aged 17 and under, the return of weekly Saturday and Sunday activities, family tours of exhibitions, the upgraded activity Natu-natshishkueu: The Adventure of Connection, and holiday programming, families will never be short on things to do.

Fall 2024 will also see the opening of the new Rossy Foundation Learning Centre, designed by Montreal firm KANVA. With the invaluable support of the Rossy Foundation, the Museum has enlarged and reconfigured this space to make it more welcoming, more functional and better suited to the needs of the hundreds of school groups who visit the Museum every year.

This coming weekend is the last chance to see the exhibition Norman Parkinson: Always in Style before it closes on Monday, September 2. Meanwhile, Portraits and Fashion: Quebec Photographers Beyond Borders has been extended until October 6.

Upcoming exhibitions

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To All the Unnamed Women – Michaëlle Sergile, artist-in-residence

From September 13, 2024, to January 12, 2025

Founded in 1902, the Coloured Women’s Club brought together Black women working in various fields to meet the needs of newly immigrated families in Montreal. For this project, Michaëlle Sergile explored the Museum’s collections, reflecting, on the one hand, on the social and political context in which this seminal club for Montreal’s Black communities was created and, on the other hand, on the women who contributed to its creation in one way or another.

Activity related to the exhibition:

• Consider the archive: A conversation between Michaëlle Sergile and artist-researcher Kessie Theliar-Charles
• Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 12 to 1 p.m. – Online
  Audience: Adult
• Exploring the archives of Montreal’s Black communities requires alternative methods to retrace the histories that have remained in the blind spots of traditional knowledge institutions. The discussion will focus on the use of archives and archiving, the foundation of Michaëlle Sergile’s practice, to inscribe Black women’s bodies in time and space. How do we articulate this presence when faced with the challenge of reconstructing, recognizing and appreciating the traces and fragments of a past that has been denied?
• Activity presented in French. Audience Q&A in French and English.

Manasie Akpaliapik. Inuit Universe

From October 4, 2024, to March 9, 2025

The Museum welcomes Manasie Akpaliapik. Inuit Universe, an exhibition dedicated to the contemporary artist from Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay) on Baffin Island (Nunavut). Featuring sculptures from the remarkable Inuit art collection of the late Raymond Brousseau, the exhibition provides unique insight into the work of Manasie Akpaliapik. Considered one of the most gifted artists of his generation, he uses his favourite materials – whalebone, caribou antler and stone – to create works inspired by oral tradition, cultural values, the supernatural world, and the wildlife and environment of the Arctic.

This exhibition was designed and produced by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.

Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870-1927

November 14, 2024, to August 17, 2025

A century and a half ago, extravagant costume balls and skating carnivals were the pinnacle of society entertainment, bringing forth a kaleidoscopic array of characters, most drawn from history. The opportunity to reimagine oneself as a noble hero or heroine from the past was no less than a chance of a lifetime, as reflected in the many images and souvenir albums preserved in the Museum’s collection.

This unprecedented exhibition, the fruit of several years of research, will feature some forty costumes from the Museum’s celebrated Dress, Fashion and Textiles collection, specially restored for the occasion. It will take a critical look at how these grand events helped reinforce the founding myths of the colony.

Ogilvy’s mechanical Christmas window displays

November 30, 2024, to January 5, 2025

Thanks to Holt Renfrew’s donation of the famous window displays to the McCord Stewart Museum in 2018, visitors of all ages are invited to (re)discover The Mill in the Forest, presented for free in Museum Alley and decorated for the occasion, as well as The Enchanted Village inside the Museum.* Marvelling at these window displays filled with animated creatures has been a cherished holiday tradition for Montrealers since 1947. Among the last of their kind in North America, their sophistication rivals those of other big department stores like Macy’s New York and the Galeries Lafayette in Paris.

The exhibition will be accompanied by activities for the whole family. Details will be available in the fall. The Museum’s holiday programming will launch on Saturday, November 30: free admission for everyone!

*Free access to the Mill in the Forest outdoors, on Sherbrooke Street. Access to the Enchanted Village presented in the Museum’s theatre with an admission ticket or a voluntary contribution.

Evolving Montreal: Andrew Jackson

February 21 to August 3, 2025

After Griffintown (Robert Walker, 2019-2020) and Hochelaga (Joannie Lafrenière 2020-2023), the McCord Stewart Museum has selected Andrew Jackson for the third photographic commission in its Evolving Montreal series. The Montreal-based British-Canadian artist’s research-creation project focuses on Little Burgundy. Andrew Jackson will explore the urban, social and cultural transformations of the neighbourhood known as the cradle of Montreal’s Black Anglophone community. He is particularly interested in the themes of family, transnational migration, displacement, trauma, war and collective memory. As an artist expressing himself through documentary photography, he has an impressive track record. His work has been published in many major publications, including the L. A. Times, The Guardian and Stern magazine, and is held in prestigious collections in the UK and the USA. This photographic commission will be the subject of an exhibition at the Museum in winter 2025.

Pounding the Pavement: Montreal Street Photography

April 18 to October 5, 2025

Montreal photographers have for many years used the camera to chronicle the experience of everyday life in the city. This exhibition presents a history of street photography as practiced in Montreal from the 19th century to the present day. Drawn primarily from the McCord Stewart Museum’s Photography collection, it features about thirty compelling bodies of work by photographers who, each in a very personal and dedicated way, have chosen to document Montreal’s urban fabric. Bringing together established artists, little-known practices and non-dominant voices, the exhibition features over 350 photographs, divided into six thematic sections. These explore different facets of the street: as a public arena, a site of protest, an assertion of collective identity, an architectural environment, a setting for local culture, or simply a place where things happen. The exhibition recounts Montreal’s rich history through the eyes of individuals who have endeavoured to capture its distinctive character. Their images occasionally reveal the city’s beauty, but more often convey its complexity, contradictions, diversity and comedy.

Exhibitions to (re)visit

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Portraits and Fashion: Quebec Photographers Beyond Borders

Extended to October 6, 2024
Presented by Holt Renfrew Ogilvy

The exhibition, curated by Thierry-Maxime Loriot, whose work includes The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk and Thierry Mugler: Couturissime, brings together prints by 17 photographers who were either born in Quebec or immigrated here, with established or emerging careers, who are making a name for themselves on the international scene: Max Abadian, William Arcand, Richard Bernardin, Alex Black, Sacha Cohen, Cristina Gareau, Andréanne Gauthier, Royal Gilbert, Shayne Laverdière, Carl Lessard, Monic Richard, Norman Jean Roy, Étienne Saint-Denis, Nelson Simoneau, Oumayma Ben Tanfous, Xavier Tera and villedepluie.

This original exhibition, with its exuberant scenography, features the artistic, editorial and commercial photography that these artists practice with equal ease and talent, as well as their more personal work. Accustomed to collaborating with major fashion magazines, the advertising world and the music scene, these photographers capture images that are sometimes stripped of all artifice, sometimes sophisticatedly cinematic, but always imbued with great sensitivity towards their models – whether famous or anonymous.

In addition to magnificent fashion photographs, a gallery of a hundred iconic portraits unfolds before our eyes, from Céline Dion, U2 and Charlotte Cardin to Nelson Mandela, Zinédine Zidane, Elisapie Isaac, Adele, Barbie Ferreira, Mika and Les Louanges.

Norman Parkinson: Always in Style

LAST CHANCE – Until September 2, 2024
North American premiere presented by Holt Renfrew Ogilvy

Considered to be one of the pillars of 20th century fashion photography, Norman Parkinson dazzled the world with his sparkling inventiveness from the 1930s to the 1980s. His long association with Vogue and extensive assignments for Harper’s Bazaar, Queen, Town & Country and other international magazines earned the British photographer worldwide recognition.

Norman Parkinson: Always in Style presents 79 of the British photographer’s best-known images, as well as recent discoveries from his remarkable portfolio. The exhibition, hosted by the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Centro Cultural de Cascais in Portugal, will be complemented by a dozen refined dresses and outfits from the 1940s to the 1960s from the McCord Stewart Museum collection, including outfits by British designers Hardy Amies and Digby Morton, and hats by Quebecers Fanny Graddon and Yvette Brillon.

A 2024 Iconic Images/Norman Parkinson Archive exhibition in association with Terra Esplêndida and the McCord Stewart Museum.

• Family tour
• Recommended for children aged 6 and over
• Families are invited to explore Norman Parkinson: Always in Style guided by Click, a friendly character who loves fashion photography and has a passion for the atmosphere of a photo shoot! The photographer’s instructions, the fabrics of the beautiful clothes and the moment everything stops, when the model’s pose and the light are exactly right… Click! It’s the sign that an image is being created.

Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience

Permanent exhibition

The exhibition bears witness to the still unrecognized knowledge of Indigenous peoples in Quebec and Canada as well as the deep wounds they carry and their incredible resilience. The public is invited to discover close to a hundred objects, along with many testimonials, to learn about the lived reality of Quebec’s 11 Indigenous nations.

This exhibition, presented by ICI Radio-Canada, was produced thanks to the financial support of the program Aide aux projets pour le soutien des expositions permanentes of the Québec Cultural Heritage Fund of the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec.

Cultural activities

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LANDING – Performance and screening – Festival Quartiers Danses

Saturday, September 7, 2024, 2 to 2:45 p.m. – Paid activities – At the Museum
Audience: Adult

The public is invited to attend LANDING, a captivating performance by Sandy Silva and guest artists, followed by the Montreal premiere of the short film Offering, as part of the Festival Quartiers Danses (FQD). LANDING will feature a performance by Sandy Silva and guest artists, an overview of the collaborative work of filmmaker Marlene Millar and choreographer/composer Sandy Silva.

Offering is a short film that captures a meaningful and joyful convergence between the body percussion artists of the Migration Dance Film Project and emerging dance (jig, contemporary, street) and circus artists – filmed in the heart of Montreal’s Little Burgundy. It’s also an opportunity to take part in a work in progress, as an excerpt from a new dance film will be presented, and the public will be invited to attend, or participate if they wish.

Space limited. Tickets on sale on the FQD website:

Regular: $20 | Reduced: $15 (See conditions on the FQD box office)

Nights at the Museum

The (Hi)stories of Our Clothes – Montréal Fashion Week

Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 5:30 to 9 p.m. – Paid activity – At the Museum

For the 2024 Montréal Fashion Week, the public is invited to celebrate the history of their clothes at the McCord Stewart Museum.

The Dress, Fashion and Textiles collection includes more than 28,000 garments and accessories made or worn primarily in Montreal over the past three centuries. It covers every aspect of women’s, men’s, and children’s fashion from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Some of our clothes carry in their fibres the history of our families, our cultural heritage, the nostalgia of significant events, or the familiarity of everyday use, decade after decade. Participants will reflect on which of their clothes have a particular meaning. Which piece(s) would they include in a museum collection to tell their personal story?

Liberation through costume

Thursday, February 13, 2025, 5:30 to 9 p.m. – Paid activity – At the Museum

Fees:
General admission: $10 | Museum Members: free | Students: $5 | Members of Indigenous communities: free

Day for Truth and Reconciliation

To mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Museum is organizing a series of special activities from September 27 to 29:

Atikamekw Suns– Screening and talk, attended by director Chloé Leriche.

Friday, September 27, 2024, 6 to 8:30 p.m. – At the Museum

The screening will be followed by a conversation with Mariette Niquay-Ottawa, an Elder from the Manawan community.

Activity in French. Space is limited, registration required on the Museum’s website.

Guided tours – Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience

Saturday, September 29, 2024 – At the Museum

The general public has the opportunity to take a 60-minute guided tour of the permanent exhibition Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience.

French tour at 11 a.m. English tour at 3 p.m.

Visitors wishing to take part in a guided tour must reserve their spot on the Museum’s website..

Special rate on Saturday, September 28: access to the exhibition Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience:
General admission: $10 | Museum Members: free | Students: $5 | Members of Indigenous communities: free

Journal of a Travelling Girl book launch

Sunday, September 29, 2024, 2 to 4 p.m. – At the Museum

Audience: Family

For Journées de la culture and to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, families are invited to an afternoon of celebration around the novel Journal of a Travelling Girl by Nadine Neema.

Program:

• Conversation between author Nadine Neema and Tammy Steinwand
• Screening of the short film Wekweètì and Ekwǫ̀ (“Wekweètì and Caribou”)
• Readings and songs inspired by Nadine Neema’s time in Wekweètì
• Book signing of Journal of a Travelling Girl
• Bannock and giveaways

The screening of the film in English will be followed by a discussion in French and English. Space limited, no reservation. Registration on the day of the event at the Museum Admissions Desk.

City Talks

For the 13th year in a row, the city’s development stakeholders will come together for the City Talks series to debate issues related to urban planning and the city that concern all Montrealers. The talks will be moderated by Dinu Bumbaru, Policy Director at Héritage Montréal.

Audience: Adults

• Concrete and Its Legacy: Modern Materials, Contemporary Challenges
  Wednesday, October 23, 2024 – Online
• Is concrete a necessary evil or an underappreciated heritage? Often singled out for criticism, concrete has been used to shape major features of our architectural heritage, from the Oratory dome to Habitat 67, not to mention a large portion of our infrastructure. How well do we recognize this legacy and the special challenges of preserving it? What are our options for maintaining it or adapting it to the era of decarbonization and today’s construction needs?
• Activity presented in French. Audience Q&A in French and English.
• In collaboration with Héritage Montréal.

The series continues in winter and spring 2025 with three events on the following themes: commercial interiors in January, neighbourhoods associated with cultural communities in March, and the metropolitan landscape in May.

Fun and interactive activities

All year round, the Museum organizes tons of activities designed for families and adults, inviting them to discover Montreal’s history and reflect on the realities of different Montreal communities. There will also be special programming for the holiday season and March break. Children and their parents will find a host of activities to do at the Museum to occupy their days off.

Welcome to the Studio: The Spy Game! – Workshop

Every Saturday from October 26 to November 23, 2024, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. – At the Museum

Audience: Family | Adults

This fun, interactive workshop is an awesome way to explore Kent Monkman’s masterful work Welcome to the Studio (2014), which features more than 30 portraits (1826-1891) from the McCord Stewart Museum’s Photography collection. This triptych plunges us into the worlds of photography, painting and Indigenous cultures all at once.

Workshop in English and French. Recommended for children aged 6 and over (parents must be present).

Looking After Our Stories in Montreal/Tiohtiá:ke – Workshop

Every Sunday from September 1 to November 24, 2024, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. – At the Museum

Audience: Families | Adults

In this civic engagement workshop, created in collaboration with Je suis Montréal, the Museum’s mediation team invites participants to lend an ear to the too often untold stories of Chinese, Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities.

Looking at images of 19th and 20th century Montreal from the Photography collection, participants will reflect on the presence or absence of objects and people that support their wellbeing in Montreal. Their reflection will be facilitated by a bank of magnetic images to juxtapose with these cityscapes, which the participants themselves will contribute to over the sessions. Each person will share their vision of a Montreal that they consider welcoming to them, while exploring and taking inspiration from other participants’ visions.

Free access to this workshop is made possible by the generous contribution of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. This project was funded by the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration and the Ville de Montréal (Montréal Interculturel program).

Workshop in English and French. Ages 6 and over (parents must be present).

Natu-natshishkueu: The Adventure of Connection

Ongoing

Audience: Family

In this participatory activity presented by Hydro-Québec, families explore the exhibition Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience, with the help of a free booklet that will take them on an adventure to encounter Indigenous nations.

Free activity, in French and English. Recommended for children aged 6 to 11.

Presented by Hydro-Québec.

Holidays at the Museum

November 30, 2024, to January 5, 2025

Audience: Family

Starting with the opening of Ogilvy’s famous mechanical window displays on November 30, the Museum will be home to a wealth of holiday programming. In addition to mechanical displays and magnificent toys from the Museum’s collection, visitors to the Museum will be able to take part in a range of activities designed to help them discover the current exhibitions in a fun and creative way.

The complete Holidays at the Museum programming will be announced in the fall.

March Break at the Museum

Audience: Family

From March 3 to 7 (the Museum will be exceptionally open on Monday, March 3), the McCord Stewart Museum will be the go-to spot for entertaining children and sparking their curiosity during the school break. Interactive tours, creative workshops, screenings and much more will be on the program this week, to the delight of children, parents and grandparents alike.

The full programming of activities for the whole family will be announced in winter 2025.

Museum Alley

Audience: Family | Adults

Open to the public since last June, the new Museum Alley is already the perfect spot to recharge your batteries downtown. A true urban oasis, this installation features picnic tables, armchairs, an edible garden, and games and toys. It hosts activities and events year-round.

Museum Alley was made possible by a generous donation from the OVI Fund – A Zhao-Ionescu Family Foundation, and with the support of Tourisme Montréal, Montréal centre-ville and the Borough of Ville-Marie.

“As a great art lover and an ally and supporter of museums for several decades, I am pleased that we can enjoy in downtown Montreal a landmark institution like the McCord Stewart Museum which, for more than 100 years, has been bearing witness to our history and the influence of our beautiful city by highlighting the vitality, creativity and diversity of its citizens and communities. The Museum’s Alley is a must see, and it reflects what has become emblematic of Montreal, contributing to its charm and its quality of life: its back alleys. Thanks to this new pedestrian space accessible all year round, Montrealers and tourists can sit, meet up, linger and chat while immersing in its abundant vegetation. The Museum’s and Alley’s programming impress me and I invite everyone to take full advantage of it,” said Serge Sasseville, City Councillor, Borough of Ville-Marie, City of Montreal.