Musée d'art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul

Musée d'art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul

Baie St-Paul
Location within Quebec
Established 1992
Location Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, Canada
Coordinates 47°26′24″N 70°30′24″W / 47.439892°N 70.506545°W / 47.439892; -70.506545Coordinates: 47°26′24″N 70°30′24″W / 47.439892°N 70.506545°W / 47.439892; -70.506545
Type Contemporary art
Website www.macbsp.com/default.aspx

The Musée d'art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, formerly the Centre d'art de Baie-Saint-Paul, is housed in the Centre d’exposition de Baie-St-Paul. It is a contemporary art museum in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, Canada.

Origins

The museum is located in downtown Baie-Saint-Paul in the heart of the cultural district. The site used to be occupied by Le Laurentien, a cinema that was also used for artistic activities. After World War II (1939–45) the cinema often put on regional shows and traveling theatrical troupes.[1] In the mid-1980s the Art Center Corporation (Corporation du Centre d’art) launched an appeal for a public subscription to build a new exhibition center for artistic and cultural activities in the Charlevoix region. CA$100,000 was raised.[1]

The cinema was too dilapidated to be preserved, but on 24 January 1992 a new building was opened on the site.[1] The Centre d’exposition de Baie-St-Paul was designed by the noted architect Pierre Thibault. It has large rooms and huge glass panels on the wall facing the church.[2] The museum is partially accessible to the physically disabled. It has meeting facilities and a boutique.[3] The three-story building won first prize for an institutional building in 1992 from the Ordre des architectes du Québec.[4]

History

Françoise Labbé was general director of the Centre d'exposition from 1992, and general and artistic director of the Centre d'art de Baie-Saint-Paul, which it housed. In 1997 she was made a knight of the Ordre National du Québec.[5] She directed the center until her death in 2001.[6] The center has presented several large exhibitions. In 1998 Jean-Paul Riopelle visited, and thousands of visitors saw his famous Ice Canoe hanging from the ceiling of the room.[1] The painter Marc Séguin has exhibited at the Center twice, in 2001 and 2013.[7]

On 16 July 2008 the Quebec minister of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women, Christine St-Pierre, announced that the center would be given the status of a museum.[6]

Purpose

The goal of the museum is to make known, promote and preserve contemporary art from 1947 to the present. It emphasizes contemporary artists and is open to new movements and forms of expression.[1] It is the only museum in eastern Quebec entirely devoted to contemporary art.[6] It is open year round. Tours are given in French and English.[3] The museum runs the annual International Symposium of Contemporary Art of Baie-Saint-Paul, which brings together artists from different backgrounds, and encourages interactions with members of the public.[8]

Collection

The International Symposium of Contemporary Art gave the museum an exception collection of works from over 400 artists from all over the world.[1] Over five hundred paintings by Kathleen Daly (1898–1994) and her husband George Pepper (1903–1962) were left to the Centre d’art Baie-Saint-Paul.[9] The Art Center Corporation acquired a valuable collection including other major figures in the history of painting in Quebec such as René Richard, the Bolduc sisters and others.[1]

References

Citations

Sources

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