Ottawa with 50 million and Quebec with 55 million will provide a total of 105 of the 116.5 million dollars of the revised budget for the renovation of the Musée d’art contemporain (MAC) in Montreal. The Ministers of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, and of Culture and Communications of Quebec, Mathieu Lacombe, confirmed their combined participation at a press conference Friday noon in Montreal.
The rest, ie 11.5 million, will come from the private sector through the MAC Foundation, which leads the fundraising campaign.
A major trend in the world shows the major involvement of the private sector in the construction of museums and exhibition centers for contemporary art. After all, megafortunes are swelling everywhere and speculation about art itself has been on a stratospheric streak for decades.
In Paris alone, the capital of one of the countries most publicly involved in culture, the Stock Exchange — Collection Pinault and four specialized foundations (Cartier, Ricard, Louis Vuitton and Lafayette) have been inaugurated in recent years. Each time, the patronage allowed the installation in a case built or retouched by a “starchitect”.
Too much or too little?
When the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMa) was expanded some twenty years ago, each of the forty members of the board of directors provided 20 million to launch the project. The campaign that financed the expansion of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (a Crown corporation, like the MAC) collected 25 million from donors (including 10 million from Pierre Lassonde), i.e. a quarter of the budget of the Lassonde Pavilion, inaugurated in 2016.
So, is 10% of the new MAC’s budget provided (still theoretically) by the private sector enough, too much or too little?
“We are still a Quebec government corporation,” replied John Zeppetelli, director of the MAC, at the press conference organized at Place des Arts, of which the MAC occupies the western part. “We are primarily a government entity. There, we also benefit from the contribution of the Canadian government and our foundation, which helps us enormously. Initially, the budget was a little less, and therefore the Foundation contributed a little less. There, as this project evolved, which was exacerbated, of course, by the overheating of the market, prices rose and the Foundation’s contribution increased. »
The Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Foundation was thanked for its involvement in the renovation file by Mr. Zeppetelli. Mr. and Mr.me Bronfman were on hand at the press conference.
Minister Lacombe added to it. “It is our responsibility [gouvernementale de s’impliquer], he said. At the same time, I am happy to see the private contribute. When we look at it as a whole, in Quebec, at the moment, major projects are carried out with the contribution of the private sector, and the private sector plays a very important role. »
A bold bet
The project’s budget has increased from 51 million in 2018 to 85 million in 2022. The Minister of Culture says that the objective is not to exceed the envelope of 116.5 million allocated now.
Past experience and the post-pandemic inflationary context seem to make this bet quite audacious. “We had this discussion,” Lacombe said. I am confident that with the first bad surprise, we have emptied this overheating space and that the next prices will be more stuck to what we had anticipated at the last budget update of the project. We’re all going to cross our fingers. But I am confident. »
The minister revealed that at the opening of the first stage tenders, the overrun was 275% of the budget in the first 8 proposals out of 25. The next tender is expected at the end of the summer, according to information from Duty. The desired opening of the new building remains fixed around 2027.
The director says that the exhibition spaces will double in size in his new museum, designed by the firm Saucier + Perrotte. The reorganization of almost all the spaces used for public reception and exhibitions will also force the museum to find places to store its permanent collection.
“I think we’re mathematically doubling our exhibition space,” says Zeppetelli. All new spaces are museum quality. We can’t put paintings from the 1950s or 1960s there, but there will be circulation spaces where we can absolutely exhibit appropriate works in this context, sculpture, video and other forms. So we are doubling the exhibition spaces and systematically enlarging the spaces dedicated to education. We will also have a completely different relationship with Sainte-Catherine Street, with an opening in transparency and light. »