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The Main Media Inc. 2026

✦ Built By Field Office
    The Main

    Montreal's Cultural Directory

    Help us improve! Share your thoughts on how we can make your experience better.

    Leave feedback

    For partnerships and collaborations:

    partnerships@themain.com

    Content

    • Articles
    • Food & Drink
    • Arts & Culture
    • History Lesson
    • Bulletin
    • Events

    Guides

    • All Guides
    • Best Restaurants
    • Best Cafés
    • Best Bars
    • Best Brunch
    • Best Bakeries

    Explore Montreal

    • Browse Directory
    • Restaurants
    • Bars
    • Cafés
    • Bookstores
    • Leaderboard
    • Editor's Picks
    • New Places

    About

    • About us
    • Subscribe
    • Shop
    • Advertise
    • Pitch us
    • RSS Feed

    Legal

    • Terms of service
    • Membership Terms
    • Privacy Policy
    Follow us
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    The Main Media Inc. 2026

    ✦ Built By Field Office
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      Arts & Culture

      The MAC Is Rebuilding With a Different Idea of What It Should Be

      With a glass facade and a new mandate, Montreal’s contemporary art museum is opening itself up both physically and philosophically.

      ByAnnaClare Sung

      April 21, 2026 · 4 min read

      The MAC Is Rebuilding With a Different Idea of What It Should Be
      Photograph: Saucier+Perrotte et GLCRM Architectes

      Discover the places mentioned in this story

      Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal

      In 2028, barring any unforeseen delays, Montreal’s Museum of Contemporary Art (the MAC) will reinhabit its place on Sainte-Catherine Street, doubling its exhibition space. Boasting a glass facade that will, at that point, be the product of a decade-long rebuild, the museum will follow a suite of peers that also reside in glass buildings, or at least incorporate the material into their structures: Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, which is undergoing a similar renovation of transparent, geometrical nature; Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art; and Manhattan’s Whitney Museum.

      Different from these institutions, or perhaps just more explicit, though, is the MAC’s rationale for such a rebuild.

      While Montreal firms Saucier + Perrotte and GLCRM are in charge of the museum’s new physical design, Stéphan La Roche, Director of the MAC since 2024, is transforming the MAC’s operational architecture. In both its aesthetic and operational ethos, the new MAC is a meditation on transparency in all definitions of the word.

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      The Main

      What to Do This Weekend (04.16–04.19)

      From jazz at a new downtown venue to Laotian pop-ups and a bookstore turning 50: April 16 to 19, 2026.

      Arts & Culture

      The MAC Is Rebuilding With a Different Idea of What It Should Be

      With a glass facade and a new mandate, Montreal’s contemporary art museum is opening itself up both physically and philosophically.

      ByAnnaClare Sung

      April 21, 2026 · 4 min read

      The MAC Is Rebuilding With a Different Idea of What It Should Be
      Photograph: Saucier+Perrotte et GLCRM Architectes

      Discover the places mentioned in this story

      Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal

      In 2028, barring any unforeseen delays, Montreal’s Museum of Contemporary Art (the MAC) will reinhabit its place on Sainte-Catherine Street, doubling its exhibition space. Boasting a glass facade that will, at that point, be the product of a decade-long rebuild, the museum will follow a suite of peers that also reside in glass buildings, or at least incorporate the material into their structures: Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, which is undergoing a similar renovation of transparent, geometrical nature; Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art; and Manhattan’s Whitney Museum.

      Different from these institutions, or perhaps just more explicit, though, is the MAC’s rationale for such a rebuild.

      While Montreal firms Saucier + Perrotte and GLCRM are in charge of the museum’s new physical design, Stéphan La Roche, Director of the MAC since 2024, is transforming the MAC’s operational architecture. In both its aesthetic and operational ethos, the new MAC is a meditation on transparency in all definitions of the word.

      Free account required

      For readers who care about Montreal

      Create a free account to read this story and access 3 articles per month, plus our weekly Bulletin.

      Independent. Local. Reader-supported.

      or

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      Share your thoughts and join the conversation. Please be respectful and constructive.

      No comments yet. Be the first!

      Advertisement

      Follow on Google
      After a Close Call, MURAL Fest Finds a Future
      Arts & Culture
      AnnaClare Sung

      After a Close Call, MURAL Fest Finds a Future

      After bankruptcy put the agency behind it at risk, Multicolore has acquired LNDMRK to ensure the festival continues, with no layoffs planned.

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      Philippe Spurrell keeps rare prints out of dumpsters while Robert Miniaci reinvents the projectors that screen them. Together, they're proving the old ways still have life in Montreal.

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      When Richard and Shuping Guo bought Hochelaga's Dépanneur Populaire in 2001, they got more than a corner store. Their daughter Angelina's new book tells the rest of the story.

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      After a Close Call, MURAL Fest Finds a Future

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      After a Close Call, MURAL Fest Finds a Future

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      Cinema Cinema's New Look Was Inevitable

      Cinema Cinema's New Look Was Inevitable
      After a Close Call, MURAL Fest Finds a Future

      Previous

      After a Close Call, MURAL Fest Finds a Future

      Next

      Cinema Cinema's New Look Was Inevitable

      Cinema Cinema's New Look Was Inevitable