Museum of Outsider Contemporary Art

In Mansonville, near the American border, an old church has been given a second life that feels both improbable and precise. From the outside, it reads like so many rural places of worship left behind by shrinking congregations. Inside, it becomes something else entirely: a space devoted to artists who work far from schools, movements, or the comfort of recognition.

The project is the work of a Montreal-based psychoanalyst who began as a reluctant collector, following instinct rather than theory. What drew him in was not polish but necessity—art made because it had to be made. The building’s former pews are gone, replaced by chapel-like rooms where each artist holds their own ground. Visits happen by appointment, guided, intimate, and unhurried.

The work can be unsettling, sometimes brutal, often deeply human. Admission is pay-what-you-can.