Gardens of the Way of the Cross - Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal

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Gardens of the Way of the Cross - Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal

My Montreal museum cocktail for the week led me to the small museum in Saint Joseph's Oratory, the grand basilica located on one of Mount Royal's peaks. I had already passed the Oratory and its enormous dome several times, and I was excited to learn what it was exactly. On a sunny May day, I arrived at the base of the Oratory's hill and was faced with seemingly never-ending outdoor stairs winding their [...]

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Montreal's History in 8 Tweets (Montreal Points of View at the McCord Museum)

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Montreal's History in 8 Tweets (Montreal Points of View at the McCord Museum)

Montreal - Points of View, a permanent exhibition at the McCord Museum, gives the visitor an overview of Montreal's history. It takes 10 different facets of the story, presenting the historic districts and people through objects, video interviews, and texts. There was a lot of history to process, especially for someone [...]

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A Museum in the Fire Station: the Musée des Pompiers

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A Museum in the Fire Station: the Musée des Pompiers

There is a museum that has intrigued me since I moved to Montreal. Each time I go to my favorite microbrewery Dieu du Ciel in Mile End, I pass a palatial fire station with a sign advertising the Musée des Pompiers (Firefighter Museum). I hadn't visited it yet, as it has the smallest window of opening hours imaginable [...]

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Visit the World's Great Libraries in Virtual Reality: The Library at Night

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Visit the World's Great Libraries in Virtual Reality: The Library at Night

Hands down, The Library at Night is one of the coolest exhibitions I've been to lately, maybe ever. It explores ten great libraries of the world using virtual reality. It's more than an exhibition: the virtual reality makes it a personal experience. I cannot recommend it highly enough. In a nutshell, The Library at Night (La bibliothèque, la nuit) is a "virtual exploration" of [...]

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Château Ramezay: Historic House in Montreal

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Château Ramezay: Historic House in Montreal

Claude de Ramezay was the governor of Montreal from 1703 to 1724. He decided that, as governor, he needed to have a grand home that befit the importance of the office. Ramezay went a little overboard, spending way too much of his own money. But the Château earned him bragging rights [...]

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Museums of Montreal, Cocktail Version

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Museums of Montreal, Cocktail Version

I have lived in Montreal for six months, and I have visited six museums. The shame! There are over forty museums on the island, so a grand total of six museums (albeit visited multiple times) is not a great batting average. I've had a lot on my plate with adjusting to life in Montreal: finding and fluffing a nest, dealing with Canadian immigration, and figuring out what my [...]

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Valentine's Day at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

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Valentine's Day at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Valentine's Day is upon us again. Commercial though it may be, I have always liked this holiday. I'll take any excuse to celebrate love! This year, I am organizing a Valentine's Day get together at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I've crafted some love-themed activities and mapped out the paintings that depict love in various forms [...]

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Pompeii at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

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Pompeii at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts just opened a large exhibition on Pompeii, with over 220 archeological artifacts. I was blown away (yikes, pun not intended). The objects were exceptional, from the colorful wall frescoes to the almost 2000-year-old bowl of olives. And the scenography was gorgeous; I [...]

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Home Furnishings from the Museum

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Home Furnishings from the Museum

I am (still) in the midst of furnishing my new Montréal apartment. I have spent hours searching for fun and functional furniture and decorations to make this nest feel like home.  After spending a recent morning assembling furniture, I decided to treat myself with a visit to the Montreal Museum of [...]

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Love in a Garden

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Love in a Garden

This painting, this fête galante, full of lovers in a garden, is a celebration of flirtation and love. While the young lovers are the focal point of the painting, a full half of the painting is dedicated to the landscape, to the architecture, to the physicality of the scene. As I looked at this painting by Nicolas Lancret, newly [...]

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Museum-Inspired Christmas Ornaments

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Museum-Inspired Christmas Ornaments

This month's Creativity Theme is CELEBRATION. So, with Christmas approaching, I gave myself a challenge for my visit to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: find a way to celebrate Christmas inspired by artwork seen in the museum. I figured the most literal way to be inspired would be by [...]

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The (Snowy) Colours of Jazz

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The (Snowy) Colours of Jazz

I assumed that my first winter in Montreal would be covered in snow. Prior to my move here this October, I obsessed with preparations for winter: I stocked up on puffy coats, heavy-duty boots, strap-on cleats for icy days... Friends, it is now December and this is the weather. Rain?! Perhaps this explains [...]

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Birds, Guitars, Cacophony: from here to ear v.19

/ Montreal Museum of Fine Arts/
Birds, Guitars, Cacophony: from here to ear v.19

There is a ridiculously cool exhibition now on in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Seventy songbirds fill a room littered with electric guitars on stands. As the birds perch on the strings of the guitars, they create a cacophonous song of pre-recorded rock, punk and heavy-metal chords. The installation [...]

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Art in the Science Centre

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Art in the Science Centre

I had been waiting all morning for the Creativity Factory to open. I was visiting the Montreal Science Centre with two of my favorite kiddos (and their mom and dad), and we had spent the morning learning about the human body. But I was anxious to get to an exhibit called Fabrik - Creativity Factory. "What [...]

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Haiku hollandais

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Haiku hollandais

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has a great collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings, from Gerard ter Borch’s satiny skirts to Rembrandt’s moody lighting. On a recent visit of these galleries, as this month's creativity theme is CELEBRATION, I considered how best to celebrate these marvels. I [...]

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Shell-ebration at the Redpath Museum

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Shell-ebration at the Redpath Museum

This month's creativity theme is CELEBRATION. For my first December museum visit, I went to the Redpath Museum, McGill University's natural history museum. The museum feels very old school: temple-like stone façade, lots of carved wood, the occasional hand-written label... The museum also [...]

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Wearing Our Identity: The First Peoples Collection at the McCord Museum

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Wearing Our Identity: The First Peoples Collection at the McCord Museum

Wearing Our Identity: The First Peoples Collection, the permanent exhibition at the Musée McCord, is fascinating on many levels. It elegantly explores the role of clothing in the "development, preservation and communication of the social, cultural, political and spiritual identities of First Nations, Inuit [...]

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First Impressions of the McCord Museum

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First Impressions of the McCord Museum

I just visited the McCord Museum for the first time, and I am utterly delighted. The McCord is a "public research and teaching museum dedicated to the preservation, study, diffusion and appreciation of Canada’s, Quebec’s and Montreal’s history". Having just moved to Montreal, I was excited to [...]

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Eyes in the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts

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Eyes in the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts

I was really excited about the butt tour. Let me explain. The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) website promoted a guided tour called "Delightful Derrières", all about the nudes in the collection. It sounded wonderfully ridiculous; I mean, come on, this was the promotional image [...]

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First Impressions of the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal

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First Impressions of the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal

With much trepidation, I climbed the stone steps that led to the front doors of the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal (MBAM) for the first time. Why was I so nervous? I moved to Montréal without knowing much about the museums. And how could I make a city my home if I didn’t like [...]

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