Stephan La Roche is changing state museums. The current president and CEO of the Musée de la civilisation de Québec (MCQ) is appointed head of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC). He will take up his position on October 14, 2024.
The current director of the Montreal institution, John Zeppetelli, announced in December that he would be leaving the position he has held for a decade at the end of this year.
Mr. La Roche’s appointment appears in the official announcements of the Council of Ministers. Quebec has three museum Crown corporations: the MAC, the MCQ and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ).
The contemporary art museum has been closed for expansion and renovation since the beginning of the decade, and the project is going from Charybdis to Scylla. The costs of realization have more than doubled since the first projections in April 2018. They are now budgeted at just over $120 million. The gain in exhibition space will also be quite limited, barely 28% according to some calculations. The new MAC should reopen towards the end of 2028, if the schedule is respected.
The three state institutions are currently undergoing major real estate transformations. The MCQ is managing the development of the future Musée national de l’histoire du Québec in the Camille-Roy pavilion of the Séminaire de Québec. This is the revised project of the parent company of the now-abandoned Espaces bleus network. The Musée national de l’histoire du Québec will become the fourth state museum.
The MNBAQ has its own major construction site for a new pavilion dedicated to the work of Jean-Paul Riopelle.
More details will follow.
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