Montebello - hikes Things to Do
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
What Stirs at the Center by Caroline Boileau
Multidisciplinary artist and independent curator, on view from March 7 to May 24, 2026.
This exhibition is the first phase of an artistic laboratory project led by the Centre d’exposition Napoléon-Bourassa collaboration with Caroline Boileau.
The Exhibition Ce qui frémit au centre brings together several works by Caroline Boileau created over the past few years: performative sculptures awaiting activation, watercolors on paper drawn from various bodies of work, as well as artist books intended to be shared beyond the walls of the Exhibition Center during outings throughout the Papineau RCM.
The selection of works is part of an ongoing initiative leading up to the first Contemporary Art Biennial in Petite Nation, which Caroline Boileau will curate in the spring of 2028. Each work thus serves as an opportunity for connection, exchange, and the forging of bonds with women artists and creators in the region.
In May, she will engage with the community through a series of visits, each of which will include a performance at the Exhibition Centre, followed the next day by an activity at a public venue in the region. These encounters will pave the way for future collaborations with local artists and creators, thereby contributing to the discussion surrounding the development of the Petite Nation Contemporary Art Biennial.
The public, as well as artists and creators who wish to participate in this initiative, are warmly invited to join us.
Free admission
Throughout the exhibition, visitors will be invited to leave a message inside the body of a massive paper frog. What would you like to say loud and clear, but anonymously? What’s on your mind? What do we collectively need for the future of the world? During the performance, all the messages collected will be read aloud from inside the frog.
Performance schedule:
May 1: Tea in the Garden
A conversational performance with the audience, running continuously from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Strapped into the “Swallowing Table,” Caroline Boileau will serve tea and cookies while asking visitors about how they care for their gardens—both indoor and outdoor, private and public. How do we care for living things?
May 8: The bird of ill omen – take to the fields
Performance from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., followed by an informal discussion with the audience.
The bird of ill omen is clad in hundreds of hand-painted paper feathers bearing excerpts from artistic, literary, philosophical, and scientific texts, waiting to be perused. Here, the body becomes a book, and the book takes on a physical form. Of all that passes through us, what do we retain?
May 22: Amphibian Consultations
Performance from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., followed by an informal discussion with the audience.
Throughout the exhibition, visitors will be invited to leave a message inside the body of a massive paper frog. What would you like to say loud and clear, but anonymously? What’s on your mind? What do we collectively need for the future of the world? During the performance, all the messages collected will be read aloud from inside the frog.
Interactive workshops
Somatic Stories
Following a presentation of artists’ books, drawings, and objects from the Tournée’s archives, participants will be invited to create a map of their inner garden: a genealogy of the pains and words that inhabit the body. Through drawing, in a simple and intuitive way, everyone will be able to explore their own sensory landscapes.
This feminist, inclusive, and welcoming workshop is open to anyone who is curious, with or without artistic experience.
Registration:
Open Books
Drawing on artists’ books, drawings, and objects displayed in the Tour’s display cases, this workshop invites participants to explore the connections between images and the body, and between drawing and movement. Participants will be invited to try a series of individual and collaborative exercises that combine movement, drawing, and physical presence.
How can we capture the invisible through drawing? How can we engage with the spaces we pass through? These questions will guide our explorations and discussions.
This feminist, inclusive, and welcoming workshop is open to everyone, regardless of artistic background.
Bring your good spirits and a bottle of water.
Registration:
Caroline Boileau
Working from a feminist perspective, with a strong interest in health—intimate, public, social, and political—Caroline Boileau creates works, often hybrid in nature, that emerge from a multidisciplinary practice spanning installation, drawing, video, and performance. The hybrid body and the multiple representations of the body—particularly that of women—are recurring themes in her research, which draws inspiration from the history of art, medicine, and science, as well as current events.
Active in the artist-run centre scene since the 1990s, she has participated in numerous residency projects, and her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Scandinavia, and Europe. Her video work is distributed by GIV (Groupe intervention vidéo), and she is represented by the JANO Gallery in Montreal.
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 watch professional artists at work right in the heart of the host village. Inspired by the identity of the place, the works take shape before visitors’ eyes and enrich the region’s cultural landscape for years to come.
