Free Admission to Museums in Montreal

Yesterday, Montreal held an event that allowed people to go to museums free of charge. I'm not a very artsy type of person, but I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to experience something new. I decided I'd leave home around 10:30 AM and set out for some of the destinations.

The first one I wanted to go see was the Planetarium. When I got there (near Bonaventure metro), a line spilled out the front doors and around the block. Only then did I realize the amount of screaming, crying, playful young families the building attracted. I left Saint-Jacques street and walked to Saint-Paul street in Old Montreal, toward the Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum.

Now, in the pamphlet it lured us in saying, "come explore 2000 years of history," but this wasn't the case. In fact, I think there was a typo, and it may have had to be "200 years." Basically, all I learnt was that a woman named Marguerite Bourgeoys instilled an educational system in order to please God. The only thing I enjoyed about that one was the look-out facing the Old Port. It was nice, and i even saw some newlyweds posing for some pictures. After that I left and walked towards Sherbrooke.


The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was the last stop. Despite visiting only two others, the walking ended up tuckering me out, I had no energy due to my stupid cookie diet, and it was getting late. The Fine Arts Museum can't ever disappoint me. I went to see an Andy Warhol exhibit a little while ago, and despite not appreciating his art, the exhibit was quite nice.

I went to go see the Mediterranean artifacts first. There were pieces from Ancient Greece and Egypt. I'm fascinated by both cultures but I have a slight preference for the Greek stuff. Aside from being half Greek myself, I took an incredible class in Cegep on Greek mythology. The sculptures were absolutely exquisite and thoroughly detailed. The Egyptians' were less so, but hauntingly intriguing nevertheless. I was also surprised by the fact that despite both cultures' artifacts to be from around the same time, their perception of the human face differed completely. The Greeks really seemed to grasp the concept of individual "faces", while the Egyptians seemed to focus mostly on the characteristics of a "population."

I finished off my stay by going to their permanent paintings collection. Do you have any idea how many paintings there are?? Most were really lovely, some really strange. The paintings from the Victorian era were really beautiful; completely realistic, but the people painted all had the same shaped eyes and mouths. I thought it could have something to do with the fact that there were far fewer inter-racial and inter-cultural pairings than there are today. I find today I can discern people's eye shape specifically, we're all truly different.

The paintings portion was probably my favourite part of the day. The paintings went from anyone between Monet, to Renoir, to Warhol. It was great to see the progression of art, the imitations of skill, the use of colour evolve over some 200 years. Looking at another person's work who is no longer around leaves a fast ocean of mystery to navigate through.

I thought this experience as particularly important because I think it raises the concept of free education. Why do we pay to learn about another person's painting? Or why do we pay to see a sarcophagus? Why can't we just be told what everything means? In my opinion, art is an important factor of culture, and within culture is education, so it is all related. If I relate this to Orr's article, education merely "emphasizes theories instead of values... abstraction rather than consciousness." Education will teach us about the method of brush strokes, but looking at the relief of paint against a canvas, and seeing those brush strokes with your own eyes, is a completely different story.

According to Orr, one principle in rethinking education would be:"education is to master your own person." Art is a very personal thing; it allows one to express herself with no constraints, no limits, no censoring, nothing. It's completely free-will. Art tells a story, but is open to interpretation at the same time. Despite not connecting completely with art, some pieces can really evoke strong emotion in me, whether sadness or serenity, happiness or confusion.

Want to know more?
All images are from Google.
Read Orr's article, What Is Education For? to learn more.