Thematic visits for college and university students

Thematic visits for college and university students take place in the collection galleries or temporary exhibitions. Through interaction with the guides, students acquire skills involved in observing, thinking about and appreciating works of art. They also have the opportunity to discover how historical or sociological factors influence artistic production. Their professor is welcome to participate in the visit in order to create a team teaching dynamic. Professors may also choose to focus on particular aspects of the exhibition and the works on display according to the curriculum of their course and their students’ areas of interest.

CONTEMPORARY ART

Any time. Length: 1½ hours

The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec is taking advantage of its expansion to highlight its impressive collection of contemporary Québec art. Some one hundred works, produced from 1960 until today, are presented in a major exhibition tracing the history of contemporary art in Québec. A tour guide will accompany you as you view the work of some of our most renowned artists, both in Canada and abroad, including David Altmejd, BGL, Geneviève Cadieux, Marcelle Ferron and Betty Goodwin, to name just a few. Through a few temporal landmarks, you’ll learn how these artists have been inspired by their times, their society, international movements and even their fellow artists.

INUIT ART

Any time. Length: 1¼ hours (groups of 25 people maximum)

The impressive collection of Inuit art acquired by the Musée in 2005 through the financial support from Hydro-Québec and the generosity of Québec City collector Raymond Brousseau contains nearly 2,700 sculptures. The fourth-largest in Canada and the largest in a Québec art museum, this collection has been relocated to one of the new galleries in the Pierre Lassonde pavilion. A tour guide will help you discover the great themes found in the art of this northern culture. Some one hundred works associated with the principle of Qaujimajatuqangit, or Inuit traditional knowledge, are on display in a stunning exhibition design which evokes the Arctic environment.

DECORATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN IN QUEBEC

Any time. Length: 1¼ hours (groups of 25 people maximum)

Visit the MNBAQ’s decorative arts and design collection to view the showpieces produced from 1950 to the present. The selected works drawn from the fields of ceramics, glass, furnishings, graphic design and design are being presented for the first time in a permanent exhibition. Accompanied by a tour guide, go back in time to revisit the key events that shaped the blossoming of these disciplines in Québec and discover numerous ingenious, daring and even eccentric objects produced by Québec artists.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PIERRE LASSONDE PAVILION

Any time. Length: 1½ hours

Several hundred artworks and three new exhibitions await you in the Pierre Lassonde pavilion. Why not begin exploring this new space with some of the must-see pieces found in it? In the company of a tour guide, visit the public spaces and the exhibitions of Inuit art, contemporary art and decorative art and design to learn more about the many masterpieces in the collection. This is the ideal tour to make the most of your visit to the new Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec!

THE PRISON ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM:
A CENTURY OF INCARCERATION IN QUÉBEC CITY

Any time. Length: 1¼ hours

Once the Québec City jail, the Charles Baillairgé pavilion housed prison inmates for more than a century. A tour guide will lead you through the building’s various spaces, including its former jail cells, and take you on a journey through time.

THE ARCHITECTURAL TOUR

Any time. Length: 1½ hours

Follow a tour guide on an out-of-the-ordinary promenade with a focus on architecture. The new Pierre Lassonde pavilion, designed by the international architectural firm OMA, is a work of art in itself. As spectacular on the inside as it is on the outside, this glass building is a perfect fit with its surroundings. It was also conceived as a place for providing public access to culture in all its forms. The auditorium, rooftop patios and the monumental staircase are just a few of the spaces you’ll see. The Architectural Tour is the perfect visit for familiarizing yourself with this new contemporary space while learning some facts and anecdotes about one of the largest cultural construction projects in Québec.

4 FIGURES OF MODERN ART

Any time. Length: 1½ hours

See Jean Paul Lemieux, Alfred Pellan, Fernand Leduc and Jean-Paul Riopelle like you’ve never seen them before! A must-see visit with Lemieux’s enigmatic spaces, Pellan’s surrealism, Leduc’s abstraction and light and Riopelle’s multi-faceted creative force and insatiable nature. Four exhibitions, four galleries, one monographic pavilion. A unique rendez-vous with Québec art and artists!