L'Abécédaire du Musée

Christine Bernier, Head of Educational Services

The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal presented L'Abécédaire du Musée from November 9, 1997 to April 12, 1998. This exhibition, modelled on a children's primer for learning the alphabet, brings together works from the museum's permanent collection associated with words and the 26 letters in the alphabet.

The project was launched in October 1994, when the museum illustrated the first four letters of the alphabet. Over the past three years, we have displayed various works from the permanent collection in a small gallery, along with large colorful letters-a playful display intended for children. In 1995, the Musée d'art contemporain also published a book for children, L'Abécédaire du Musée, in co-operation with Les Publications du Québec.

The new version of L'Abécédaire du Musée was a larger exhibition, allowing us to meet some new objectives, including raising public awareness about people unable to read and write.

This expanded edition of the Abécédaire series brings together 26 works from the permanent collection, each of them associated with a word starting with one of the letters in the alphabet. Since the exhibition was displayed in the galleries of the permanent collection, this larger space allowed us to alter the scope of the project and reach a larger audience.

The main goal of the exhibition, i.e. offering visitors a new way of viewing works in the permanent collection, remained unchanged. However, we had to rethink both the choice of works and the exhibition design -primarily with respect to the large letters-so as to appeal to a broader audience, not just children and school groups. The new exhibition was also of interest to adults who know little about contemporary art; members of the literacy community, both learners and teachers; visitors familiar with contemporary art; and everyone interested in teaching strategies bringing together art and learning.

The exhibition was also designed in such a way that the works and the words could be read on a number of levels. Visitors read the letter, then the word and finally a short text accompanying each piece, which provided a biography of the artist and a technical description of the work. Those who were not familiar with contemporary art were thus able to learn about the materials and production techniques used as well as the artist's work. As for our more regular visitors, this was an opportunity for them to see important works from the museum's collection that had not been displayed for years, if ever.

As expected, the exhibition has proven highly popular with school groups. It is this exhibition, in fact, that elementary and secondary art classes visited under art programs sponsored by the Québec Department of Education to support Montreal schools and offer students access to cultural resources. This important program is part of the department's action plan for educational reform. Students from one multi-ethnic school in Montreal visited the museum and translated each of the 26 words into their native tongues, making the Abécédaire exhibition a work in progress. The gallery walls were also gradually adorned with contributions from different cultures.

Raising awareness
To raise public awareness about people unable to read and write, the Féderation canadienne pour l'alphabétisation en français set up an information booth during the launch of the exhibition. We also worked with a number of other organizations, including the Fondation québécoise pour l'alphabétisation, the Equipe interrégionale en alphabétisation and the YMCA "Words for Women" program. All of these organizations brought literacy groups to the museum for guided tours of the exhibition, which we adapted to meet each group's needs.