Écomusée du fier monde

The Écomusée is in an area of town called the Centre-Sud. The last time I was there was to get my nose pierced in some sketchy tattoo shop as a pseudo-rebellious fourteen year-old. I’ve never had any desire to go back yet, go back I did. I went with my friend Stacey who’s much more comfortable navigating the sketchier areas of town than I am. The museum is on a nice street across from a market and near Sherbrooke, but it’s also above Ontario Street, which I hesitated to walk along even in the middle of the day.

Regardless, the museum itself is a great find. The building used to house a community pool, of which the tiled sides remain on the ground floor of the exhibition space. The young man at the front desk walked us into the gallery and told us all about the community, its history, and the museum. We asked him questions in English and French and he listened and responded in French, the perfect Québécois conversation. The permanent exhibit is only in French but we were giving a flyer with English translations of the main text panels. The text was full of errors and I asked the attendant if they had a lot of English visitors. He said they have a fair number and I told him that the text wasn’t awful but it wasn’t great. He gave me a highlighter and asked me to fix it. The nerd in me rejoiced; Stacey was mortified.

The permanent exhibit is a brief but important look at the community’s struggles and their efforts to adapt and survive. I really liked the testimonials and documentary photographs of the area’s residents. The Centre-Sud serves as a synecdoche for Montreal’s industrial past and I learned about a history that I didn’t get in school. Granted one of the only things I remember from Quebec history class is how French farming is different from English farming.

The temporary exhibition was done in partnership with the Textile Museum in St-Lambert. On display are garments by important Quebec designers. The Écomusée does an interesting tie-in to the local community by talking about the Centre-Sud’s industrial history and its role in Montreal’s garment industry. The exhibit did not touch on contemporary designers, but perhaps the show at the Textile Museum does.

The Écomusée isn’t perfect, but I think that its imperfections make it work. The museum is about an industrial working-class community and it shouldn’t look fancy. It should be exactly what it is: unique, honest, and passionate.

3 down, 29 to go.