Make way for readers | Are we witnessing the planned disappearance of the MAC?

The text of the former curator of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal Réal Lussier has generated many emails. Here is an overview.



“I have pain in my museum”

Allow me to add my voice to that of Mr. Réal Lussier, a friend and former colleague of the Museum. I worked relentlessly and with conviction at the MACM for more than 35 years (1980-2015).

I held various positions within the institution that no longer exist today, for example multimedia creations. I attended the creation of the Museum in the city center where we had to think big, think of the height of the creators here. We imagined a multipurpose room to invite artists such as Robert Lepage, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Marie Chouinard, Michel Lemieux, Denis Marleau, François Girard, Walter Boudreault, Lorraine Vaillancourt… Today, nothing remains of that, only the archives of the Museum can bear witness to their passage through the Museum.

The last years of my career, from 2000 to 2015, I was responsible for the development of the collection. During these 15 years, the Museum has been able to enrich its collection by counting on the exceptional generosity and loyalty of its donors and collectors to the institution.

As confirmed by the annual reports of the time, the Museum benefited from an enrichment with a market value of nearly 2 million annually. Today, we can no longer make donations to the Museum and the person in charge of the collection has left the ship.

Could someone, somewhere, wake up and claim a better future for the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, whose doors are currently closed in the middle of the summer and tourist season on the Place des Festivals? I feel bad about my museum.

Suzanne Lemire

A shame !

It is a shame that the MAC is in such administrative lethargy. The main showcase of contemporary art in Quebec is in a coma and it is deplorable when this museum should celebrate with great fanfare the 100 years of our greatest Quebec painter Jean Paul Riopelle. A truly missed opportunity. It is incomprehensible and very frustrating for tourism and contemporary art lovers.

Helen Beique

great sadness

It is with great sadness and a bit of desperation that I have just read what is happening to the MAC. I have frequented this museum many times and seen some amazing progressive and innovative exhibits there. It would really take a group of professional, persevering and determined people to take over this project. The cultural life of the city of Montreal and of Quebec as a whole must continue to benefit from this institution.

Michele Dansereau

A good idea ?

Maybe that’s a good idea. It was not exceptional. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has enough space for contemporary art.

Bruce Eadie, Montreal

poor relation

Having visited many major cities worthy of the name, Montreal is a poor relation in many respects. A place where one likes to be satisfied with little and where one ends up believing that everything is beautiful in this metropolis, even its ugliness and its incongruity. When will there be a MAC in Montreal, with an architecture that would push us to shout wow! like in Bilbao in front of the Guggenheim museum?

Marc Andre Sabourin

lukewarm government

Contemporary art is often considered a joke, nonsense! It is not surprising that governments are lukewarm to the idea of ​​subsidizing this activity which does not have the support of a population already overwhelmed by galloping inflation.

Gerard Laperriere


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