The Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion, just behind the smaller of the two Montreal Museum of Fine Arts buildings on Sherbrooke Street, is a concrete and glass miracle that had almost been forgotten.
After three years of renovations, it’ s here that the Museum is reopening its Pavillon d’Arts Décoratifs et du Design, and we were able to visit it before its reopening this Saturday, September 13th 2025…
The Musée des Beaux-Arts, art deco and renewal
We’re in a room flooded with light, on the second floor of the Liliane and David M. Stewart pavilion, and the sun’s rays are green through the bay windows. Stéphane Aquin, Director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts (MBAM), begins with a lesson in museum history.
In 1916, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, on the initiative of Frederick Cleveland Morgan, began collecting decorative and design objects. In 1997, when the museum moved to Sherbrooke Street, the collections were displayed on displays designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry.
In 2000, Liliane Stewart bequeathed the entire collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Montréal to the MBAM, in the pavilion where the collection will be rediscovered this autumn. Today, it is one of the richest collections of decorative arts and design in North America, and one of the most complete in the world.
This comes 25 years after Stewart’s gift, and for its reopening the Musée des Arts Décoratifs has called on design historian Rachel Gotlieb to build an exceptional exhibition where, as Stéphane Aquin says,“we’ve moved the sun to the heart of the building“.
Dave Chihuly’s Sun is placed at the center of the pavilion, and can be seen from all angles and on both levels of the exhibition, a brilliant and strangely reassuring contrast amidst the brutalist architecture of the venue.
“600 years of decorative arts and design”
Rachel Gotlieb chose 800 pieces from the Museum of Fine Arts’ collection of some 24,000. She speaks of the “enormity of the task” and the feeling of being “like a kid in a candy store“.
The pavilion, as a result, is a presentation of found treasures; antique cameos, convoluted pvc chairs, portable televisions, miraculous metal coffee pots…
The works and objects are arranged not by decade (the kind of organization you’d expect from a “classic” design exhibition) but by theme. Transportation, hygiene, the office… The exhibition is “transcultural and transhistorical”.
The place of honor is reserved for Quebec and Canadian designers and artists, including Julien Hébert and the original design of “Terre des Hommes”, the Expo 67 theme that still makes Montreal one of the most phantasmagorical cities in international design. In one of the videos projected on the pavilion walls, he explains how he created it…
We’ll let you discover the rest of the pavilion for yourselves; on September 13, for its official reopening, admission is completely free!
Practical info
Where? Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion, 3410 Avenue du Musée
When? Reopens Saturday, September 13, 2025
How? free on Saturday, September 13, 2025 / and after, $31 for 26 years and over, $15.50 on Wednesday evenings, free for 25 years and under, members of aboriginal communities and people with disabilities and their companions.
Enjoy your visit!