Musée d’art contemporain to get $48 million rejuvenation
The Musée d’art contemporain will undergo major renovations that will make the popular museum larger, brighter and more contemporary.
The new look will give the museum greater visibility on Ste-Catherine St. beside Place des Arts.
The museum’s entrance will be transformed from a door that is barely visible from the street to a large, glass-filled atrium.
“The museum will feel much more welcoming and friendlier,” said John Zeppetelli, the museum’s director and chief curator. “Montreal will finally have a jewel that lives up to its ambitions, its reputation and its artistic importance.”
The renovations, which should take about two years, will cost about $47.7 million.
Quebec and Ottawa are each contributing about $18.8 million and the museum’s foundation will raise the remaining amount.
The museum will be closed during renovations, scheduled to begin in March or April 2019 and finish in the fall of 2021.
A temporary MAC will be opened in the spring of 2019 at a location that has not been announced.
The exhibition space will almost double, allowing the museum to display more of its vast collection of modern art.
A second-floor restaurant, with large windows, will look out onto the Quartier des Spectacles.
The museum’s attendance has increased over the past five years with 600,000 people visiting over the past 12 months. More than 100,000 tickets have been sold to the MAC’s exhibition on the life and work of Montreal singer Leonard Cohen. The exhibition wraps up on Thursday evening.
Alexandre Taillefer, the president of the museum’s board of trustees, said modern art has become more popular because it “talks about what is going on now and it talks about the future.”
“Looking at art from the past is very interesting, but it doesn’t shake you as much as contemporary art,” he said.
The increased popularity of contemporary art can be attributed to a more educated public, many of whom have left the traditional area of worship and need to transfer a spiritual energy somewhere, Zeppetelli speculated.
“I feel they’re transferring that experience to the museum experience,” he said. “Artists are like the new rock stars. The work is interesting, compelling and bold.”
Contemporary art is also gaining ground commercially, with more people interested in acquiring art work to decorate their homes, he said.
Saucier+Perrotte Architects/ GLCRM & Associés Architectes, a consortium of Quebec architects, was awarded the contract to design the new museum.