What future for international exhibitions in Quebec?

The two national museums in the greater Quebec City region, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Musée de la civilization, deplore the decision of the City of Quebec to end a subsidy of $1 million per year for the presentation of international exhibitions.

The National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec (MNBAQ) and the Museum of Civilization (MCQ) have received $500,000 each per year since 2016 to bring in major international exhibitions as part of the Cultural Development Agreement between the city and the Ministry of Culture and Communications (MCCQ).

The reaction was unanimous. It’s a hard blow to take. We may have expected a reduction, but we didn’t expect a drastic cutadmits Jean-Luc Murray, general director of MNBAQ. It disorganizes us a little.

It’s certain that it’s going to be difficult to find exhibitions as impactful as that in the coming years without the City’s support.confides for her part Julie Lemieux, newly at the head of MCQ. Ironically, it was she, then a municipal councilor and member of the executive committee under Labeaume, who had put this subsidy in place.

At the time, museums (MNBAQ et MCQ) came to meet the City to explain their desire to present major international exhibitions to attract more tourists to Quebec and have greater influenceshe explains. We thought it was well documented at the time. There were definitely figures to back it up.

The end of this financial contribution is not good news for the future of international exhibitions. The budgets of MNBAQ a you MCQ respectively revolve around 2 million dollars per year. The million allocated to the two institutions has made it possible in the past to present international exhibitions Giacometti, Miro in Majorca, Rembrandt, The Art of Engraving, Turner and the sublime et Alexander McQueen – Art meets fashion at the National Museum of Fine Arts. At the Museum of Civilization, the exhibitions Hergé in Quebec, MAYA, The time of the pharaohs et Gladiators : Heroes of the Colosseum have, among other things, benefited from this financial assistance.

Furthermore, the most attended exhibition at the Musée de la civilization was that dedicated to Hergé, which attracted an average of 84,000 admissions per month.

The City’s explanations

The Cultural Development Agreement between the City of Quebec and the MCCQ is a three-year, renewable agreement for the implementation of orientations and interventions in terms of cultural development and heritage. This year, the 2024-2026 Cultural Development Agreement amounts to $73.1 million.

The Ministry limited the increase in our new agreement to $1.3 million over three years, it is in this context that we were forced to make choicesexplains Catherine Vallières-Roland, deputy mayor and responsible for culture and major events on the executive committee of the City of Quebec.

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It was after consultations carried out over two years with stakeholders in the cultural sector of Quebec that the decision to redistribute the money was made. The consultations really allowed us to take stock of all the priorities and needs of the community, explains the municipal councilor.

Even though museum leaders had reiterated the importance of the financial contribution to the City, the City chose to redistribute the amount to local creators. It is certain that in the economic context, what we choose to do is really refocus on our mission, ensure that the sums of money we have decided to invest go directly to our creators , to our artists and our cultural organizations, specifies Catherine Vallières-Roland.

Does this mean that international exhibitions are no longer relevant for Quebec City? I think it remains interesting and relevant. Obviously, there are citizens of Quebec City who attend these exhibitions.she continues. It also attracts people from abroad. It’s just that we have to make choices..

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Upcoming exhibitions

The exhibitions planned for summer 2025, i.e. Titanic at the Museum of Civilization and Niki de Saint Phalle – The 1980s and 1990s at the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, will indeed take place. The million dollars planned for these two exhibitions has been maintained. The Ministry of Culture and Communications confirms that financial assistance of $1 million had been reserved for 2024-2025. He adds that this financial assistance will allow for a transition during the last year of this measure.

But what happens next remains uncertain. We will try to look at the options as quickly as possible, but it is certain that for us this adds to a complicated budgetary context with hiring freezes, limits on full-time employees and balancing the budget.mentions Jean-Luc Murray, general director of MNBAQ.

The general director of MCQJulie Lemieux, thinks that it will be more difficult to seek out large-scale exhibitions. We are already in solution modeshe emphasizes. The Museum is a museum institution that contributes to the City’s finances, so it’s a small return that allowed us to compensate for that, and also to please the people of Quebec, people from outside with exhibits that they couldn’t necessarily see here. That’s what makes us a little sad.