Montebello - Attraction
Centre d’exposition Napoléon-Bourassa
Activities
A crossroads of art and creativity
Located in the heart of the village of Montebello, the Napoléon-Bourassa Exhibition Centre is a vibrant space dedicated to visual arts and fine crafts. Four exhibitions are presented each year, showcasing the talent of professional and emerging artists from near and far. Each visit invites discovery, reflection, and emotion in a bright, inspiring space that is free to access and fully accessible to people with reduced mobility.
The Centre also houses La Fouinerie, a unique boutique featuring original creations by artisans and artists who are members of the Centre d’action culturelle. Jewelry, ceramics, textiles, and works on paper—each piece tells a story and celebrates local craftsmanship.
To round out the experience, visitors can explore the Livres Libres library, a collection of creative journals produced by the community, and discover the Symposiums d’art in situ, a striking public art trail spread across seven municipalities in the MRC de Papineau: Papineauville, Ripon, Thurso, Plaisance, Val-des-Bois, Namur, and Duhamel.
Current Exhibition
Mishtamishk 2 – The Giant Beaver Revisited by Sonia Robertson
Ilnu de Mashteuiatsh, artist, art therapist, independent curator, and lecturer—on view from September 19 to November 15, 2026.
Mishtamishk 2 – Giant Beaver Revisitedfeatures a large beaver pelt onto which new images captured locally by the artist will be projected. The installation, which also features a winding river of fabric accompanied by soundtracks, references, in particular, the ancient Innu waterways, trading posts, and the historical significance of the beaver in the region’s development.
“The giant beaver refers to an Innu legend according to which the beaver is said to have created the lake [or bodies of water]. Indeed, water is the beaver’s habitat; water is life.”
— Sonia Robertson
A Meeting with the Artist
The public is also invited to a participatory event with artist Sonia Robertson on Friday, September 18, at 2:00 p.m. This will be a unique opportunity to participate in the artwork and take the time to interact with the artist in a barter setting. Participants are invited to exchange a local object with the artist—which will be incorporated into the exhibition—in exchange for a beaver-related item. It will also be possible to offer an experience rather than an object; this experience may then be incorporated into the exhibition’s soundtrack.
Opening Reception
The public is warmly invited to the opening reception, which will be attended by the artist and will take place on Saturday, September 19, at 2:00 p.m.
The artist will speak at 2:30 p.m.
Refreshments and pastries from Kîsisam will be served.
Free admission
Sonia Robertson
(Chicoutimi)
A member of the Ilnue of Mashteuiatsh, where she currently lives, Sonia Robertson is an artist, art therapist, curator, and entrepreneur. She earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary art from the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi in 1996 and has participated in numerous artistic events in Canada, France, Haiti, Mexico, and Japan. She has developed an in situ and increasingly participatory approach. For her, art is a means of expression and healing. She completed a master’s degree in art therapy at UQAT, during which she developed an approach rooted in the imagination of hunter-gatherer peoples. Active in her community, she has co-founded various organizations and events, including the Diane Robertson Foundation—now known as Kamishkak’Arts—which supports artists at all levels and uses art as a tool for social change through various projects; the TouT-TouT artists’ workshops in Chicoutimi in 1995; Kanatukulieutsh uapikun in 2001, which works to preserve and promote the Pekuakamiulnuatsh people’s knowledge of plants; and the Atalukan Festival of Stories and Legends in 2011. As a curator, she focuses primarily on long-term, participatory projects that straddle the boundary between art and art therapy.
As an entrepreneur, she has just created, together with her sons, a space for gathering and promoting Ilnu culture and the arts.
Site-Specific Art in Petite Nation
Every two years, art comes to life outdoors in the villages of Petite Nation. The site-specific art symposium, coordinated by the Centre d’exposition Napoléon-Bourassa, invites the public to discover professional artists at work right in the heart of the host village. Inspired by the identity of the place, the creations take shape before visitors’ eyes and enrich the region’s cultural landscape in a lasting way.
