For immediate release

Erskine and American United Church to play a new role as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Pavilion of Canadian Art

February 14, 2007

Montreal, February 14, 2007 — The management of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) today unveiled their project to convert the Erskine and American Church, located on Sherbrooke Street West, into a Pavilion of Canadian art. The new pavilion will double the Museum’s exhibition space currently available for Canadian artists. The Erskine and American Church, built in 1894, is a designated national historic site.

“The church’s history, its architectural value, and its location within the same city block as the Museum make it an ideal setting in which to display our collection of Canadian art, to which the public currently has insufficient access due to lack of exhibition space,” said MMFA Director Nathalie Bondil. The church will join the MMFA’s existing three-pavilion complex and will be linked to it via an underground gallery.

The MMFA owns one of the country’s largest collections of Canadian art. The new pavilion will house works of historical importance from the seventeenth century to the 1960s, from the French regime to the Refus global, from religious art to Riopelle, along with major works by Ozias Leduc, James Wilson Morrice, Alfred Laliberté, Fortin, Pellan, Borduas and Inuit artists. The MMFA, which has recently received many Canadian works, intends to enhance and expand its current collection over the coming years.

The project also involves restoring and highlighting the church’s Romanesque Revival architecture and its interior ornamentation, notably its magnificent stained glass windows, twenty of which were made by Tiffany. The church nave, which will remain unaltered, is to become a multidisciplinary hub hosting travelling exhibitions and educational or cultural activities. Only the rear part of the structure will be entirely rebuilt to make way for five large galleries on as many floors, for a total surface area of 2,000 square metres.

The MMFA had entertained hopes of making this project a reality for several years. The total anticipated cost for the acquisition, renovation and construction of the pavilion is $26 million, an amount to come from the federal and provincial governments. An innovative aspect to the project is the self-financing plan to cover annual operating costs, made possible through $14 million in private donations.

“In terms of both the richness of the works it will house and the great architectural worth of the building itself, the Pavilion of Canadian Art in the Erskine and American United Church will both enhance the Museum’s cultural heritage and create a new tourist destination for the city,” said Bernard Lamarre, President of the MMFA. The MMFA aims to begin the work by late this year and hopes to open the Pavilion of Canadian Art in 2010 to coincide with the Museum’s 150th anniversary.

The opening of a new pavilion devoted to historic Canadian art within the Museum complex is part of the MMFA’s mission to attract the broadest and most diverse public possible and to provide visitors with first-hand access to a universal artistic heritage. Access to the MMFA’s collections is free of charge to visitors at all times.

“We are very excited about this project and the potential it offers the Museum to showcase Canadian art,” Ms. Bondil said.

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Information
Danielle Champagne
Public Relations Department
514-285-1600
Email: dchampagne@mbamtl.org

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