Fine Arts Museum opens a new pavilion

The Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace inaugurated this past November 4, is the new addition to the Montreal Fine Arts Museum. The new building will be devoted to showing an extensive collection of international art as well as to enhance art education in the city.

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, the son and daughter of the late Michal and Renata Hornstein, and Michel de la Chenelière were among the invited personalities attending the event. The new building on Bishop St. just south of the current Museum complex comes to fulfill the aspiration of this institution to be able to offer Montrealers and visitors to our city, a first class international arts centre. This event is coming just in time for the celebration of the city’s 375^th anniversary and the 150 years of the Canadian Confederation, in 2017.

A particular reference was made to those who contributed to the materialization of this project: “We are deeply honoured to be inaugurating the Pavilion for Peace, named for two great Montrealers and prominent benefactors, Michal and Renata Hornstein,” said Jacques Parisien, the MMFA President. He also remarked that the new building “is the fifth pavilion in the Museum complex, which has grown in size by more than 25% in five years, with the addition of the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Arts and the Pavilion for Peace.”

For her part, Nathalie Bondil, Director General and Chief Curator remarked the great contribution that the new building and collection will represent for the Museum and Montreal in general: “This collection, which was already reinstalled in 2011, had grown from about 300 to 430 works. Today it has made a spectacular leap forward, totalling 750 works—a 147% increase since 2010 and 72% since 2011, barely five years later. This immense installation, following the story of art from the Middle Ages to the year 2000, has been enriched by the Hornstein donation.”

Sari Hornstein in her speech indicated that “our parents weren’t just great individuals and a remarkable couple. They were citizens who loved Montreal, their adopted city, and contributed to making it an even more wonderful place to live.” A point also highlighted by Mayor Coderre, he also reminded the audience the circumstances in which the Hornsteins ended up in our city: they came here to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews. Premier Couillard also emphasized the generous contribution of people like the Hornstein and their contribution to Quebec.

The Pavilion for Peace is located at 2075 Bishop St. and it will open to the public for free from November 19, 2016, to January 15, 2017. The fourth floor is dedicated to the art from the Middle Age to the Renaissance. The third floor contains works from the Golden Age in Holland and Flanders. The second floor has artworks from the Baroque to the Napoleon time (the French, Italian, and English masters of the 17^th and 18^th centuries). The first level displays art from the 19^th century to the year 2000 (from Romanticism to Contemporary art, this is also the largest gallery).

The new building will also have an educational vocation, thanks to the donation of Michel de la Chenelière: “Art does you good! Yes, art can change, improve, even transform someone’s life” this art benefactor said. Level S1 will be devoted to educational programs, with a family lounge designed especially for young visitors. Level S2 will contain a Rainbow Hall and a digital lab.

For detailed information about current exhibitions and other activities at the MMFA visit www. mbam.qc.ca/en/

By Sergio Martinez – totimes.ca