© Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004), étude pour Mouth #10, 1967, photo MBAM - Christine Guest
Explore the MMFA
The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts in the Golden Square Mile presents the Canadian premiere of O’Keeffe and Moore: Giants of Modern Art, a large-scale exhibition that, for the first time, sets the work of American painter Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) in dialogue with that of British sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986). Through over 120 works, together with recreations of each artist’s studio, the exhibition examines the lives and art of these two 20th-century icons, retraces the evolution of their artistic practices and underscores the fundamental relationship between humanity and the natural world. Runs to June 2.
The Pop of Life! Pop Art in the Collection of the MMFA showcases iconic works of Pop Art from the Museum’s collection, including creations that have rarely or never been shown. The exhibition brings together installations, sculptures, paintings, textiles, drawings and prints by Canadian artists associated with the Pop movement, such as Pierre Ayot, Edmund Alleyn and Joyce Wieland, alongside their international contemporaries, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Eduardo Paolozzi. Runs to March 24.
© Laura Dumitriu
Reliving the past
The exhibition The St. Lawrence River, Echoes from the Shores at the Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex in Old Montréal tells the story of the third largest waterway in North America. Via more than 300 objects from various collections, the river reveals itself at ten fascinating stops throughout the exhibition, from wars to shipwrecks. The exhibition shows how—from past to present—the river has been explored, navigated, tamed and celebrated. Runs to March 3.
The Saint-Henri exhibition explores the vibrant and captivating history of a unique Montréal neighbourhood and runs to May 11, 2025.
Families will also enjoy Pointe-à-Callière’s permanent Come Aboard! Pirates or Privateers? interactive exhibition.
Visitors are encouraged to purchase their tickets online before visiting the museum.
© Rirkrit Tiravanija, «Untitled 1996 (Rehearsal Studio No. 6)», 22 novembre au 31 décembre 1996
Avant-garde art at PHI
The PHI Foundation in Old Montréal presents the JOUEZ/PLAY solo exhibition by Argentinian-born artist Rirkrit Tiravanija who is widely recognized as one of the most influential artists of his generation. His work defies media-based description as it combines traditional object making, public and private performances, teaching, and other forms of public service and social action. Continues to March 10.
The Phi Centre presents Colored: The Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin, an augmented-reality experience that uses the HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset to bring to life the story of U.S. Black civil rights pioneer and icon Claudette Colvin. Runs to March 10.
Then In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats transports visitors via virtual reality to the heart of a rave during the 1989 peak of rave culture in England, accompanied by the sounds of old-school Acid House. Runs to March 7.
Ancient Egypt revisited
The PHI also presents The Horizon of Khufu: A Journey in Ancient Egypt, a unique VR expedition that brings together ancient history and new technologies to relive the reign of Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu and explore the 146-metre-high Great Pyramid of Giza, Khufu’s final resting place built between 2,590 and 2,565 BC. Visitors wander through galleries and spaces inside the Great Pyramid before reaching its top for a breathtaking view of modern Cairo and the Giza Plateau, then board an Ancient Egyptian sun boat on the Nile to witness the funerary rite of Khufu 4,500 years ago.
The Horizon of Khufu is located in the Old Port next door to the Montréal Science Centre. Children under 8 not admitted. The 45-minute immersive experience has been extended to May 31.
The Impressionists
Classic paintings by Impressionist masters come to life in the immersive experience Lasting Impressions, thanks to cutting-edge 3D Motion Sculpting technology, at Le Studio-Cabaret in Espace St-Denis has been extended to March 31.
© Château Dufresne
Canada’s Michelangelo
After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italian-born master-glassmaker, painter-decorator, and fresco painter Guido Nincheri travelled to Boston in 1913, then moved to Montréal the following year, becoming the most prolific religious artist in Canada during the 20th century. Known as Canada’s Michelangelo, Nincheri (1885-1973) is celebrated in the Du profane au sacré exhibition at the Château Dufresne museum and historical site to mark the 50th anniversary of his passing. The temporary exhibition displays some 40 selected original works, archival documents, artefacts, and a video. Runs to June 30, 2024.
© OASIS Immersion
OASIS immersion
Canada’s largest indoor immersive attraction, OASIS immersion at the Palais des congrès de Montréal presents Dreaming of Asia, a walk-through museum-type experience where visitors enjoy three spellbinding state-of-the-art immersive experiences inspired by the cultural heritages of China and Japan including graceful Japanese prints that have struck the imagination of people worldwide, strolling immersed through the famed Chinese painting Along the River during the Qingming Festival, and seeing Piying shadow puppets come to life.
In collaboration with National Geographic, OASIS immersion presents a second brand-new immersive exhibition, Root forNature, inspired by the historic COP15 agreements. Root for Nature immerses visitors in a striking interpretation of biodiversity via immersive digital arts and informative educational zones.
Click here for OASIS immersion schedules and tickets.
© Musée d'art contemporain
The MAC at Place Ville Marie
The Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia “anti-exhibition” at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal – widely known as The MAC (or “Le MAC” in French) – is Pussy Riot’s first survey exhibition, originally presented at Kling & Bang, an art space in Reykjavik.
Famed for protesting Vladimir Putin and tyranny in Russia, the feminist collective produces performances, music and videos characterized by provocative, politically charged lyrics and actions. A North American premiere, this exhibition brings together the last decade of Pussy Riot’s activism, documenting their actions and the punishments meted out by authorities. Runs to March 10.
All MAC contemporary art exhibitions are presented at the MAC’s temporary location in the Place Ville Marie shopping mall during the museum’s current $57-million renovation. The new MAC will open in 2025.
Click here for tickets and directions.
© Musée McCord Stewart - Laura Dumitriu
Montréal today and yesterday
The McCord Stewart Museum in the Golden Square Mile presents the superb Becoming Montreal: The 1800s Painted by Duncan exhibition which displays more than 100 watercolours by James Duncan who documented the colonial city’s 19th century evolution during a remarkable 50-year career, producing panoramic views that predate the invention of photography. Duncan’s body of work lovingly captures the city and its people. Visitors will recognize many of the landmarks captured in his paintings. The McCord has also published the exhibition’s excellent accompanying book James Duncan (1806-1881) – Painter of Montreal, the first monograph dedicated to Duncan, giving the painter his just due at long last. The exhibition runs to April 21.
The exhibition Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy brings together for the first time 40 wampum necklaces, cultural goods of great diplomatic significance to many Native communities of northeastern North America. Runs to March 10.
© Marilyn Aitken – McCord Museum
The permanent exhibition Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience pulls together 100 carefully selected objects from the museum’s Indigenous Cultures permanent collection.
© Sandra Larochelle
The art of architecture
The Canadian Centre for Architecture in Shaughnessy Village is not just an architectural jewel in the heart of downtown Montréal, but a world-renowned museum of architecture and international research institution that believes “architecture is a public concern.”
The Lives of Documents—Photography as Project is the first of a trilogy of research and exhibition projects produced by the CCA on the medium of photography—between work of art, research tool, and document—as a means to investigate the built environment. Runs to April 7.
As CCA founder Phyllis Lambert says, “We’re not a museum that puts things out and says, ‘This is architecture.’ We try to make people think.”
© Nafir Salaheddine
Space for Life museums
Children of all ages can discover new worlds at Montréal Space for Life, the largest natural-sciences museum complex in Canada. Montréal Space for Life comprises the Botanical Garden, Planetarium, the Biosphere, Insectarium and famed Biodôme.
In the Planétarium, the domes of the Chaos and Milky Way theatres are equipped with state-of-the-art laser projectors for an ultra-HD experience. The Planétarium offers a double bill each day.
Over at the Botanical Garden, in addition to the carnivorous plants, visitors can admire superb passionflowers and begonias in full bloom, and see fruit growing on banana, carambola, jackfruit and papaya trees, daily in the greenhouses.
The Biosphere environmental museum presents the immersive exhibition Riopelle - A Bird Wild and Free which focuses on the final period of artist Jean-Paul Riopelle’s life and work when he lived in L’Isle-aux-Grues on the St. Lawrence River. Discover the majestic landscapes and the flights of white geese that inspired Riopelle, and catch a glimpse of his studio. Runs to June 30.
The Biodôme takes visitors through the five ecosystems of the Americas. The Biodôme is a huge crowd-pleaser.
The renovated Insectarium is the first museum in North America where you can observe so many species of insects live – some roaming freely – and naturalized in one place.
Purchasing fixed-time tickets online is highly recommended.
© Ecomuseum Zoo
The Ecomuseum Zoo
The Ecomuseum Zoo is the only outdoor zoo on the island of Montréal and offers visitors a unique and natural experience to observe 115 animal species – including Black Bears, River Otters, Turtles, Canada Lynx and Eagles – found in Québec’s Saint Lawrence Valley. The popular 11-hectare zoo located in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is a 30-minute drive from downtown Montréal. There is also free on-site parking for all guests.
The Ecomuseum Zoo is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. The last admission of the day is at 4 PM. Tickets must be purchased online in advance.
Montréal Science Centre
The Montréal Science Centre in the Old Port of Montréal presents the interactive exhibition INSPIRING NATURE, INSPIRED TECHNO - Biomimicry and Transport that explores how plants and animals have inspired science and helped transportation technologies evolve by stirring new concepts, ideas, and projects that visionaries, inventors, and researchers transform into reality. The exhibition features nearly a dozen of nature’s ingenious principles that helped transform human transportation technology. Runs to March 24.
The Canadian Premiere of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards Exhibition presents a series of 60 photographs from the annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. Runs to March 24.
The children-friendly permanent exhibitions at the Montréal Science Centre are all open, while its IMAX cinema screens films for all ages, including Animal Kingdom 3D: A Tale of Six Families. Click here for the screening schedules of the latest films.
© La confiante tortue imbriquée - Hussain Aga Khan
Saving our planet
The Age of Union Centre in Montréal’s Mile-Ex neighbourhood presents multiple exhibitions dedicated to raising awareness and mobilizing the public on issues related to the environment and nature. Click here for current and upcoming exhibitions at the 12,000-square-foot centre which is open Fridays and Saturdays from 11 am to 5 pm. Age of Union closes permanently on March 16.
© Château Ramezay - Musée et site historique de Montréal
Château Ramezay – Historic Site and Museum of Montréal
Originally built in 1705 by Montréal’s then-governor Claude de Ramezay as his personal residence, the Château Ramezay in Old Montréal is the oldest private historical museum in Québec. Permanent and seasonal exhibitions attest to the far-reaching history of Montréal, but none so much as the Château Ramezay itself, which served as the Canadian headquarters of the American Revolutionary Army in 1775-1776, and where Benjamin Franklin stayed when he tried to persuade Montréal to join the American revolution.
The Château Ramezay welcomes visitors daily from 10 am to 5 pm. No reservations required.
© Eva Blue - Tourisme Montréal
Our Lady of the Harbour
Visitors are transported back through time at the Marguerite Bourgeoys Historic Site which houses the Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours in the heart of Old Montréal.
Built in 1771 over the ruins of an earlier chapel, the Marguerite Bourgeoys Historic Site houses a museum dedicated to Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys, the Frenchwoman who founded the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montréal and was the colony’s first teacher back in 1653 (Bourgeoys was canonized by the Vatican in 1982). Bourgeoys is buried in the chapel.
Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours chapel is also known as the “Sailor’s Church” not just because it overlooks the harbour, but because it was famed in the 19th century for being a pilgrimage site for sailors who arrived in the Port (now the Old Port).
Visitors can climb the chapel’s belvedere to join the “angels of Ville-Marie” and enjoy spectacular views of the Old Port and Old Montréal, as well as visit the permanent Meet Marguerite! exhibition exploring Bourgeoys’ personal saga and legacy.
The historic site is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm until May 15.
Tickets can be bought online or at the door. Free admission to the chapel.
© Musée des Hospitalières de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal
Heavenly exhibition
Created by the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal to mark the bicentennial year of the birth of Mount Royal Park’s creator, famed American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), the temporary exhibition Our Mountain: Memories of Mount Royal tells the 5,000-year-old story of Montréal’s iconic “mountain” located in the heart of the city. Runs to August 31.
The permanent exhibition at the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal explores the 300-year history of Montréal’s first hospital, Hôtel-Dieu, along with that of the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, a pioneering community of women who laid the foundations of the healthcare system, in Montréal and elsewhere in Canada.
Located in the trendy Plateau Mont-Royal, the museum is open Tuesday to Friday from 10 AM to 12 PM and from 1 PM to 5 PM, and weekends from 10 am to 5 pm.
Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal
Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal is a cutting-edge art centre located in the hip, urban Griffintown neighbourhood, and promotes and develops contemporary Canadian art by exhibiting local artists.
Created by Brigitte Poupart, Until We Die (Jusqu’à ce qu’on meure) combines theatre, circus arts, dance and electronic music. Duration: 80 minutes. Runs from March 6 to 24.
© Eva Blue
Festival Art Souterrain
The 16th edition of the contemporary art exhibition Festival Art Souterrain takes place in Montréal’s underground city from March 16 to April 7. Click here for the full program.
Écomusée du fier monde
Dedicated to exploring the history of Montréal’s working class, the Écomusée du fier monde presents the temporary exhibition Bâtisseuses about two pioneering community organizations, the Comité social Centre-Sud and the Centre d’éducation et d’action des femmes de Montréal (CÉAF), documents the different struggles women faced in the last 50 years. Runs to March 3. Exhibition in French only. The museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday.
Richard Burnett
Richard “Bugs” Burnett is a Canadian freelance writer, editor, journalist, blogger and columnist for alt-weeklies, mainstream and LGBTQ+ publications. Bugs also knows Montréal like a drag queen knows a cosmetics counter.