The four largest museums in the province are asking Quebec for permission to impose the vaccination passport on their visitors. The National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Civilization, with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, pleaded this cause in a joint letter addressed to the Minister of Culture, Nathalie Roy. Is access for all to these art venues at stake?
According to information obtained by The duty from a reliable source from these museums, it is to meet the demand of visitors that the museums-laws of Quebec and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) want to impose the vaccine passport. Since 1er September 2021, museums and libraries are among the few cultural venues exempt from this restriction.
However, several visitors present their passport spontaneously at the entrance to major museums, according to what has been learned The duty. Other art lovers turn back after realizing that the latter is not required to access exhibitions. At least 18 other museums in Quebec, which are not governed by law like the national museums, already impose the vaccine passport on their own initiative on visitors.
“For the moment, there is no change in the application of the vaccine passport in museums. The government and Public Health are currently working more on resuming activities than on strengthening measures, ”said the press secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Elizabeth Lemay.
“We are currently concentrating all our efforts so that the cultural community can resume its activities in a sustainable and safe manner,” continued Ms.me Lemay. To our knowledge, no outbreak has been officially recorded in the museums-laws of Quebec. We continue to monitor the situation closely. »
Reassure, despite no outbreak
The four museum institutions returned with one voice to the Duty. “Since the start of the pandemic, the three state museums and the MMFA have maintained a link with the Ministry of Culture with a common goal: to protect employees and visitors in order to remain open and accessible,” commented Agnès Dufour, Museum of Civilization of Quebec (MCQ). For the moment, no additional measures have been implemented. »
Art museums are recognized as very inauspicious places for the transmission of COVID-19. The fact that one wanders there without stopping for long in front of the works, their vast spaces, the ventilation systems necessary to preserve the collections make them exemplary places from a sanitary point of view.
To the knowledge of the MMFA, “no outbreak, either among visitors or within the team, has occurred at the Museum” since the start of the pandemic. At the Museum of Contemporary Art, “like any other organization, we have had isolated cases among employees, but no outbreak,” said communications director Marine Godfroy. The MCQ and the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec did not respond before the time of delivery of this text.
The Omicron context
A survey conducted by the Société des musées du Québec (SMQ) among its members reveals that 32% of the 109 respondents require the vaccination passport “either for general admission, activities or events”. 60% of survey respondents are also in favor of implementing the vaccine passport in museums. 40% oppose it.
For the director general of the SMQ, Stéphane Chagnon, these results show “how diversified and atypical the network is. We don’t live the same reality if we are an urban art center or a small regional society museum”.
Mr. Chagnon also points out that the survey took place from January 18 to 20, “that is, at the top of the Omicron wave. I believe that if we asked the same questions next week, the results would be different”.
The Pointe-à-Callière museum, in Old Montreal, has required a vaccination passport since December 26 at the entrance. “It’s a matter of respect, to ensure the safety of our visitors and employees,” explains the director of communications, Marie-Josée Robitaille.
“We offer a lot of interactive activities. We receive a lot of children and school groups,” she continues. Although the museum provides a stylus for the touch screens, so that they are not touched directly by a thousand little fingers, he believes that additional measures were necessary.
Visitors react very positively to these tailor-made measures, specifies Mme Robitaille; only one complaint was reported, at the door, with no follow-up to management.
The Holocaust Museum in Montreal and the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau also require passport vaccinations. Like the POP Museum, next to the old prison of Trois-Rivières, closed during the Omicron push, and which reopens just on Saturday.
“The old prison is a cramped space, very difficult to ventilate. “It is mainly to calm the concerns of the employees that the director, Valérie Therrien, has added sanitary measures. “We are also suffering from the labor shortage, it is important that our employees feel safe. »
For museologist Yves Bergeron, holder of the Research Chair in Museum Governance and Cultural Law at UQAM, “if museum-laws ask the Minister to impose the vaccination passport, all the other museums will follow… In order to avoid dividing the museum community, shouldn’t the government apply the same rules to the entire cultural community? asks Mr. Bergeron.
The law requires certain places to impose the vaccination passport. Is it legal for exempt places to request it? “It is possible that an establishment will put in place more severe measures than those which are currently compulsory, replied the Ministry of Health, such as requiring the vaccination passport on its premises. In such a case, it is up to the institution to ensure that the measure complies with the various laws in force, in particular the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. »