Working towards an active collecting

Timed with the milestone of its 40th anniversary, the MAC LAU has begun an important period of reassessment and collection transformation, joining forces with a new committee of experts dedicated to collection development.

The experts
Barbara Clausen’s contribution to the committee is immeasurable. In 2015, over a special two-day event, she met with the MAC LAU team and Board of Directors to share a presentation on international models of museums founded near major metropolitan centres, focusing on institutions with a value system rooted in research. These panels helped shape the evolution of the museum’s central tenets and new mission. Clausen’s profound knowledge of curatorial practices and institutionalism are invaluable, as is an approach based solidly on the values espoused by artists, artistic practices and research.

Similarly, the works of Francine Couture on the ongoing role of contemporary art in artistic institutions will inform and guide the museum on its new approach, one that fuses showing its collection with considered reflection on its future.

The museum’s goal throughout this process is to re-evaluate its collection policy within the framework of the dematerialization of certain practices in 

contemporary art. Richard Gagnier’s understanding of restoration and conservation, as well as his vast curatorial experience, will play a pivotal role in this transformative exercise.

In addition to sitting on the museum’s Board of Directors, Éric Ladouceur is an artist. This phase of self-reflection and redefinition would not be complete without the voice of someone so intrinsically knowledgeable and involved.

When all is said and done, there is one simple thread of similarity binding these committee members: each and every contributor, in their own unique way, offers fresh insight and thinking that’s outside the box.


Thumbnail image

Phillippe Caron Lefebvre
Sceau du Musée d'art contemporain des Laurentides
2012
50 cm diameter
Wood and screws
Donation from the artist
Photo: Lucien Lisabelle

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The main mission of the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides is to showcase, share and promote the works of visual artists. Towards this vision, the museum collects, preserves, exhibits and documents artworks with a particular emphasis on contemporary art. The MAC LAU acquires, on a regular basis, a growing collection of print and audiovisual works and media reflective of the visual arts practices of the Laurentians, allowing for the continued documentation, preservation, research, exhibition and interpretation of these works. The MAC LAU carefully evaluates all artworks donation submissions.

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