Gare de Matapédia — art and community centre

PRESENTATION

Launched in 2021, La Gare de Matapédia - Arts and Community Centre is a visual arts project showcasing local heritage. It integrates artist residencies, an exhibition space, arts activities and open studio event. It aims to create a meeting place, to bring art closer to communities, and to offer artists from Quebec and elsewhere a creative space outside of city space, as well as urban outreach for artists from the Gaspésie region.

THE STATION

Still in operation, the Matapedia train station is a heritage building representative of the history of regional development by train. The project will preserve the authenticity of the building and enhance it. A train station is a space that invites you to let yourself be carried away by an imagination of travel and discovery. It is also a place of encounters, a place of arrivals and new departures. VIA Rail supports this project by allowing the use of a large part of the building while preserving the use of the waiting room by train passengers.

A PROJECT ANCHORED IN THE COMMUNITY

The Matapedia train station is located in the heart of the village and is in line with the Belvedere road, the tourist information, the recently renovated church, the community garden and the local businesses nearby. Collaborations are planned with the École des Deux-Rivières de Matapédia. Partnerships with three local community and cultural organizations will also allow the population to benefit from activities and services on site. The opening of this new space will contribute to the municipality's dynamism while reinforcing the social ties within the community and developing a sense of belonging through the valorization of a railway heritage building, a symbol of ecological values and the development of the municipality at the very beginning of the 20th century.

CROSS-RESIDENCY BETWEEN MATAPEDIA AND MONTREAL 

The Matapedia train station is a heritage building whose original architecture is intact. It evokes the development of the regions by train and multiple journeys, witnesses of different eras. The Matapedia train station becomes a creative workshop space for two three-month residencies as part of this pilot project.

Reciprocally, the project also gives artists from the Gaspé region access to creation and dissemination spaces in an urban setting at the Fonderie Darling, in the historically rich premises of a former industrial building in the heart of Old Montreal.

The project includes, in addition to the creative residency, a workshop or activity component linked to the communities, both in Matapedia and in Montreal, either in schools or with partner community organizations. It can be a participatory project, art workshops, discussions, public performances, public art or other.

* Quartier Éphémère and the art centre Vaste et Vague would like to thank the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Conseil des arts et letter du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, Municipality of Matapédia, Via Rail Canada and Desjardins for their generous support.