A fixture in the heart of the city for over 100 years, the McCord Stewart Museum sheds light on life in Montreal, both past and present. It bears witness to the history, vitality, creativity and diversity of the communities that make up the city. In keeping with its commitment to decolonization and sustainable development, it creates exhibitions and educational, cultural and community-engagement activities that look at social history and contemporary issues through a critical and inclusive lens. The Museum’s Archives, Documentary Art, Dress, Fashion and Textiles, Indigenous Cultures, Material Culture and Photography collections, containing 2.5 million images, objects, documents and works of art, position it as the custodian of a remarkable historical heritage and one of North America’s leading museums.
EXHIBITIONS:
Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience
Permanent exhibition
The Museum's new permanent exhibition gives a voice to indigenous peoples through some one hundred objects accompanied by more than 80 textual and video testimonies collected from people from the 11 indigenous nations in Quebec. Directed by Huron-Wendat curator Elisabeth Kaine, the exhibition invites the public to come and meet the indigenous peoples and their points of view through a three-part journey that highlights their still little-known knowledge, the deep wounds they bear and their incredible resilience.
To All the Unnamed Women – Michaëlle Sergile
From September 13, 2024, to October 6, 2025
As part of its Artist-in-Residence program, the Museum presents the exhibition To All the Unnamed Women by artist and independent curator Michaëlle Sergile, a tribute to the lives of Black women in Montreal between the years 1870 and 1910. For her first solo exhibition in a museum, the artist has created 7 original tapestries on Jacquard looms. Three of them reconstruct images selected from the Museum’s Photography collection, and four illustrate portraits of Coloured Women’s Club of Montreal (CWCM) members. Archival photographs and objects from the Museum collections complete the installation.
Manasie Akpaliapik. Inuit Universe
From October 4, 2024, to March 9, 2025
Conceived and produced by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and featuring 40 sculptures from the late Raymond Brousseau’s remarkable collection of Inuit art, the exhibition offers a unique look at the work of Manasie Akpaliapik. Considered one of the most gifted artists of his generation, he teases creations representing oral tradition, cultural values, the supernatural world, Arctic wildlife and the environment out of his preferred materials, stone, whale bone and caribou antlers.
Costume Balls – Dressing Up History, 1870-1927
From November 14, 2024, to August 17, 2025
A century and a half ago, extravagant costume balls and skating carnivals were the pinnacle of society entertainments, bringing forth a kaleidoscopic array of fanciful costumed characters. But, beneath all the anachronistic exuberance, these balls reinforced core myths of colonial destiny and imperial futures.This exhibition captures the splendour of entertainments where, for just one evening, guests transformed themselves into characters inspired by history or fantasy. The invitation to reimagine oneself as an alter ego was no less than an opportunity of a lifetime, occasioning study, expense, and a trip to the photographer’s studio. Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870-1927 tells an extraordinary story, showcasing some of the most extraordinary objects in the Museum’s collections.
Ogilvy’s Christmas mechanical window displays
From November 30, 2024, to January 5, 2025
Montrealers have been spellbound by the mechanical displays in Ogilvy’s department store window for over 70 years — a Holiday tradition that began in 1947. Similar to those of department stores in other parts of the world, such as Macy’s in New York or Galeries Lafayette in Paris, these window displays are among the last of their kind in North America. They were donated to the McCord Stewart Museum in March 2018 by Holt Renfrew with the goal of preserving and ensuring the continuation of the iconic Montreal displays.
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