Museum project

EXPRESSION, a museum in the making

Founded in 1985, the EXPRESSION centre will become the Musée d’Art contemporain et de Société (MAS). Soon to be housed in the former mother church of Saint-Hyacinthe (Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire church), the museum will become part of the national landscape of accredited museums. It will also be an integral part of the Pôle culturel maskoutain, a cultural hub that is gradually being built in Saint-Hyacinthe. All of the museum’s activities will be aimed at the mission of “better living together” by gathering and combining contemporary art and current societal realities. These activities will take account of international, national, and regional concerns.

In correlation with the mandate of the future MAS, EXPRESSION already owns and manages two collections: one for contemporary artworks and one for regional objects. These collections, which will be developed rapidly in coming years, currently comprise almost 200 contemporary artworks and 3,000 regional objects representing the farming and religious realities of the Les Maskoutains region and Québec.

Focuses for development of the collections

EXPRESSION has two separate collections, for which the development focuses are different yet complementary. The development committee for the collections takes into consideration the need to establish connections (thematic, historical, or conceptual) between the two entities.

As part of the museum project and the Pôle culturel maskoutain, EXPRESSION is increasingly working in collaboration with the Centre d’histoire de Saint-Hyacinthe. One of these collaborations is the virtual exhibition Portraits de femmes.

Virtual exhibition

The virtual exhibition is in french only.

Une exposition virtuelle réalisée en étroite collaboration avec le Centre d’histoire de Saint-Hyacinthe.
En 2015, dans le cadre de son projet de musée qui porte aujourd’hui le nom de Musée d’art et société (MAS), EXPRESSION a mis en ligne l’exposition Portraits de femmes. Nous vous invitons à découvrir — ou revoir — ces portraits des plus touchants, une occasion peu commune d’apprécier le travail d’un photographe maskoutain doté d’une grande sensibilité. À travers ce parcours historique du Studio Hébert, on y découvre les stratégies mises en œuvre pour fabriquer des images idéalisées de femmes, correspondant aux attentes et aux valeurs du début du XXe siècle.

Portraits de femmes regroupe des photographies réalisées entre 1905 et 1941, des portraits provenant du Fonds Studio B. J. Hébert, propriété du Centre d’histoire de Saint-Hyacinthe.

Commissaire : Lucie Bureau

Visit the exhibition