The Musée

For over 60 years, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) has brought together Québec and international artists, their work, and diverse audiences, championing art as an essential part of life in Montréal and across Québec. While its home in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles undergoes a major architectural transformation, the Museum has been temporarily housed at Place Ville Marie, one of the city’s most iconic landmarks.

As preparations accelerate for the opening of the new MAC at Place des Arts, exhibitions at Place Ville Marie have now come to an end. The space will instead host cohorts of Habiter le MAC, a one-of-a-kind support program for emerging artists from across Québec. During this transition, the Museum will continue to offer a vibrant public program, including cultural and educational activities, creative workshops, artist talks, lectures, and special events.

Mission

Canada’s premier museum dedicated exclusively to contemporary art, the MAC is committed to demonstrating the fundamental role played by contemporary art in our society. To achieve this, it offers visitors a range of artistic and educational activities that familiarize the general public with contemporary art. With a history that already spans half a century, the Musée pursues its mission with ever greater conviction: to make known, promote and preserve Québec contemporary art and ensure a place for international contemporary art through acquisitions, exhibitions and other activities.

Vision

Truly a museum for the twenty-first century, the MAC aims to be accessible, trailblazing and visionary; a vibrant place of dialogue and discovery bringing together contemporary art, local and international artists and their works, and all different kinds of audience. The museum is also a versatile place, open to every form of expression: digital and sound works, installations, paintings, sculptures, ephemeral pieces, performances and more. Today more than ever, the MAC wants to reaffirm its leadership role and convince a continually growing public of the essential contribution made by contemporary art in asserting and developing our culture, and the clear value it holds for our society.

History

The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal was founded in 1964 by the Québec government, at the instigation of artists and collectors who wanted to see an institution established to build a collection of contemporary works by artists from Montréal, Québec, Canada and around the world.

The MAC opened to the public in March 1965 in temporary premises at Place Ville Marie. It was housed at Château Dufresne from 1965 to 1968, when it moved to the Expo 67 Gallery of International Art, at the Cité du Havre. In 1983, the museum was made a provincially owned corporation with the following mission: “To make known, promote and preserve contemporary Québec art and to ensure a place for international contemporary art through acquisitions, exhibitions and other cultural activities.”

In 1992, the MAC moved from the Cité du Havre to its home on Sainte-Catherine Street, at Place des Arts.

Directors