Tomorrow’s Curators Embracing World Cultures
J.A. DeSève Gallery
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion – Level S1
June 11 – September 15, 2019
Free admission !

Montreal, June 11, 2019 – In collaboration with Youth Fusion, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is pleased to present Youth Fusion: This is Our World. Tomorrow’s Curators Embracing World Cultures. This exhibition was produced for the BNP Paribas Foundation’s Dream Up program. It is a testament to the creative and artistic worlds of the Montreal-area students who created it. Make way for the curators of tomorrow !

This educational project, which encourages student retention, is available for free. It brings together high school students from Pierre-Dupuy, Le Vitrail, Chomedey-De Maisonneuve and Académie Dunton schools in the Commission scolaire de Montréal. Referring to works from the Museum’s World Cultures collections, students have responded to the theme “Our Universe” with their observations and creations. The thought-provoking intercultural crossroads these young artists have co-created prompts us to consider the many points of view that coexist in our shared space.

For this ambitious large-scale project, the students met with curators and educational facilitators to learn about museum professions while acquiring skills they used to mount an exhibition that lived up to their expectations. The exhibition is the result of the third collaboration with Youth Fusion, an organization that encourages students to stay in school, as part of their Exhibition Curators program. The two earlier exhibitions took place during the exhibitions From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-face Picasso, Past and Present in 2018 and Revolution in 2017.

Student quotations:

“For me, world cultures are the different traditions and beliefs from all over the planet. It’s a chance to learn a lot of things and share our knowledge.”

– Mélia Tremblay

“My definition of world cultures is the importance of each of the objects that come from here and elsewhere, it’s their meaning, the reasons they exist and the stories they tell. Because all these objects stand for something important.”

– Annette Ambele

“World cultures are our society’s open mindedness and understanding.”

– Anonymous

Credits

An EducExpo organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Youth Fusion, in collaboration with the Commission scolaire de Montréal, as part of the BNP Paribas Foundation Dream Up program.

About Youth Fusion

Youth Fusion is a bilingual, job-creating charity that contributes to student retention, employability and civic engagement of targeted youth by developing innovative experiential learning projects that create ongoing links between school systems and the community. Every week, we work with more than 13,000 young people in more than 200 schools in rural, urban and Indigenous communities, including more than 4,700 youths in 23 Inuit and First Nations communities.

THE MMFA: a dynamic educational and cultural hub

Education is central to the MMFA’s mission. Every year, tens of thousands of students take part in tours and art workshops, which offer many opportunities for learning through art. The MMFA fosters access to culture and runs numerous projects aimed at promoting inclusion and encouraging students to stay in school, notably in cooperation with Une école montréalaise pour tous, Breakfast Club of Canada, Youth Fusion and the borough of Montréal-Nord. With its online educational resource EducArt.ca, it makes its collection available to secondary schools throughout Quebec. The MMFA aspires to be a “museum-school,” offering teachers the possibility of teaching their classes at the Museum, in a unique learning environment that encourages student success and development.

Acknowledgements

Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy

Major Patron: Fondation de la Chenelière

Dream Up program

With support of: BNP Paribas

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Download high-resolution images here.

Press Room: mbam.qc.ca/en/press-room

About the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Drawing over 1 million visitors annually, the MMFA is one of the most visited museum in Canada and North America. Its highly original temporary exhibitions combine various artistic disciplines – fine arts, music, film, fashion and design – and are exported to the four corners of the world. Its rich encyclopedic collection, displayed in its five pavilions, includes international art, world cultures, decorative arts and design, and Quebec and Canadian art. The Museum has seen exceptional growth in recent years with the addition of two new pavilions: the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion, in 2011, and the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace, in 2016. The MMFA complex also includes Bourgie Hall, a 460-seat concert hall, as well as an auditorium and a movie theatre. The MMFA is one of Canada’s leading publishers of art books in French and English, which are distributed internationally. The Museum also houses the Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy, the largest educational complex in a North American art museum, enabling the MMFA to offer innovative educational, wellness and art therapy programmes. mbam.qc.ca