About Place des Arts
Place des Arts: a multipurpose cultural complex
Place des Arts was inaugurated during a period that would prove to be one of Montréal’s most prolific in terms of major construction projects that went on to change the metropolitan landscape. Place Ville-Marie, Place Bonaventure, the Metropolitan Expressway, the Metro, the Stock Exchange Tower, Expo 67, Île Notre-Dame, and Habitat 67 all rose from the dust during the 1960s in Montréal, as did Place des Arts, which welcomed its first spectators on September 21, 1963.
Classified as a building of exceptional heritage value, Place des Arts—which has become an all-important cultural hub—was born of the desire of Montrealers to endow themselves with a concert hall that lived up to the city’s expectations. In 1955, at the initiative of Montréal’s mayor, Jean Drapeau, a group of influential businessmen laid the foundation for the project. The Centre Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier Corporation was officially created in 1958, and it was through this entity that the project was taken to completion. Construction began on February 11, 1961.
Made up today of six performance halls comprising of a total of 8,000 seats, Place des Arts also includes rehearsal halls, a costume workshop, warehouses, and office space that make it a true crossroads of Montréal and Québec cultural life, located at the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles in Montréal.
Highlights
The inaugural concert at Place des Arts took place on September 21, 1963 and was led by two eminent conductors, Wilfrid Pelletier and Zubin Mehta, in the Grande Salle. This 2,990-seat hall was renamed Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in 1966, as a tribute to the famous Montréal-born conductor.
In 1964, the Centre Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier Corporation was dissolved and replaced by the Régie de la Place des Arts, which in 1982 became the Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal, reporting since that time to Québec’s Minister of Cultural Affairs, today the Minister of Culture and Communications.
In 1966, the Place-des-Arts Metro station was inaugurated as part of the official opening of Montréal’s subway system. The following year, in order to allow for the hosting of the World Festival of Entertainment—a major cultural event taking place concurrent to Expo 67—the Place des Arts complex was enhanced by the addition of the Theatre Building, housing Théâtre Maisonneuve and Théâtre Port-Royal. A modern version of a theatre in the Italian style, Théâtre Maisonneuve was inaugurated on April 30 by Jean-Louis Barrault and his troupe Théâtre de France Renaud-Barrault, who—along with the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde troupe—performed a program entitled Saint-Exupéry. This hall can seat 1,453 spectators.
Théâtre Port-Royal was officially inaugurated on May 3 with the McGill Chamber Orchestra and flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal. However, the first performance to have actually taken place in the hall was on the previous evening, on May 2, by Haile Selassie I’s folk theatre ensemble, under the presidency of the Emperor of Ethiopia. Théâtre Port-Royal is today called Théâtre Jean-Duceppe, in honour of the well-known man of the theatre, founder of the company that bears his name. This hall has a seating capacity of 765, with tiered seats offering excellent sightlines of its exceptionally wide stage measuring 42 by 17 metres.
Théâtre du Café de la Place was inaugurated in November 1978; this hall is now called the Studio-théâtre and can seat 128 spectators, making it an intimate space in which to feature theatrical performances and showcases by singer-songwriters.
As for Place des Arts’ Cinquième salle, dedicated to contemporary artistic expression, it was inaugurated on May 29, 1992 and includes 421 seats. That same year, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal opened its doors on the Place des Arts plaza. In 1993, a joint inauguration served to highlight Place des Arts’ outdoor Esplanade and the museum’s Sculpture Garden.
The Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal has been the owner and administrator of the Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay in Joliette since 1995. This outdoor amphitheatre, known for its great acoustics, can hold 2,000 spectators under its covered portion and an additional 8,000 on its lawn. Each year, the Festival de Lanaudière—the largest classical music event in the country—welcomes thousands of people to the amphitheatre. Place des Arts is also in charge of the artistic programming in this performance space during off-festival periods.
A major milestone in Place des Art’s development was reached in 2011 with the inauguration of the Maison symphonique, a new concert hall mainly intended for use by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, meeting the most stringent international norms for acoustics, stage design, and architecture.
That same year, after undergoing major indoor renovation work, Place des Arts changed the name of its Hall des Pas perdus to the Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme, an indoor public space brought to life through the presentation of performances, exhibitions, and talks. Lastly, the Esplanade was given new lighting as part of the lighting plan carried out through a partnership with the Quartier des spectacles.
A full range of artistic expression
Place des Arts’ mission is to promote artistic and cultural life in Québec, and to provide increased accessibility to the various forms of performing arts. Since its inauguration, it has welcomed artists from around the world into its halls and onto its stages. It now presents over 1,000 performances each year, welcomes close to a million spectators into its halls, and offers programming that showcases the full range of artistic expression.
With the collaboration of hundreds of producers, it stages performances of Québec, Canadian, and foreign classical music, opera, jazz, theatre, dance in all its forms, circus arts, song, pop music, comedy, world music, musicals, literature, and film. Playing an increased role in producing shows, Place des Arts more and more frequently acts as a co-producer or co-presenter of various events and programmes.
Place des Arts provides a residence to three major arts organizations: the Opéra de Montréal, Les Grands Ballets canadiens de Montréal, and Compagnie Jean-Duceppe, all of which contribute to enhancing the institution’s cultural programming. In addition, since 1995, the Société pour l’avancement de la chanson d’expression française (SACEF) has produced and showcased the new generation of singer-songwriters in the Studio-théâtre.
Place des Arts is also host to major international festivals including the Festival international de Jazz de Montréal, the Just for Laughs Festival, Les FrancoFolies de Montréal, the World Film Festival, the Festival Montréal en lumière, the Festival TransAmériques, and the Festival du monde arabe de Montréal, presenting their activities in its halls and on the outdoor Esplanade. Each year, Place des Arts welcomes over four million spectators into its halls and to its outdoor stages.
For several years now, the Société de la Place des Arts has increased its efforts in the areas of outreach, cultural democratization, and increased accessibility to the arts. Through its Accessibility to Performing Arts Program, it makes use of an array of activities ranging from open opera dress rehearsals and lectures by choreographers, to performances by the up-and-coming generation of French-language singer-songwriters and exhibitions in the Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme’s exhibition room. The Mélodînes series, Sons et brioches, Les week-ends de la chanson Quebecor, the Ma première Place des Arts competition, the Nuit Blanche, International Dance Day, and the Journées de la culture are all part of this eclectic programming.
At the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles, Place des Arts remains an essential communications link between creators, producers, and the public. Playing a major role in the development of performing arts from both home and abroad, Place des Arts—through the integration of all of its halls into an architectural whole, and through the programming it presents—forms the largest multipurpose cultural complex in Canada.
The Place des Arts Logo
It was in 1960 that a member of the Board of Directors, Claude Robillard, proposed the idea of holding a public competition for the choice of a symbol to identify the architectural complex. Some one hundred projects were submitted meeting the following criteria: the symbol had to include three fundamental elements, that is, the three performance halls in the initial project. Gilles Robert, a professor of graphic arts in Montréal, was the winner. His sketch was an interlaced design based on the letter A, the first letter in the word Art. Three interlocking coloured spots represented Place des Arts’ three main performance halls. While remaining true to the original design, Place des Arts’ logo was updated twice: in 1992 by Pierre-Yves Pelletier, who gave the A a more stylized look, and on the occasion of the institution’s 40th anniversary, when the logo was rejuvenated by the placement of the stylized letter in a circle and the addition of the Place des Arts name.
Artists who have performed at Place des Arts
(Non-exhaustive list)
- Classical Music - Opera
Conductors - Classical Music
Raffi Armenian
Gilles Auger
Mario Bernardi
Alexander Brott
Boris Brott
Jean-Claude Casadesus
Franz-Paul Decker
Charles Dutoit
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Serge Garant
Agnès Grossman
Pierre Hétu
Anton Kuerti
Jacques Lacombe
Éric Lagacé
Neville Marriner
Zubin Mehta
Kent Nagano
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Wilfrid Pelletier
Joseph Rescigno
Mstislav Rostropovitch
Stanislav Skrowaczewski
Yuli Turovsky
Pinchas ZukermanMusicians - Classical Music
Martha Argerich
Claudio Arrau
Emanuel Ax
Kathleen Battle
Henri Brassard
Alfred Brendel
Sarah Chang
Kyung-Wha Chung
Alexandre Da Costa
Michel Dalberto
Angèle Dubeau and La Pièta
Horacio Gutierrez
Ida Haendel
Marc-André Hamelin
Matt Herskowitz
Angela Hewitt
Vladimir Horowitz
Chantal Juillet
Leonidas Kavakos
Alexandre Lagoya
Lang Lang
André Laplante
Alain Lefèvre
Cho-Liang Lin
Louis Lortie
Radu Lupu
Yo-Yo Ma
Yehudi Menuhin
Hélène Mercier
Sabine Meyer
Anne Akiko Meyers
Carlos Montoya
Anne-Sophie Mutter
David Oistrakh
Gerhard Oppitz
Itzhak Perlman
Ivo Pogolerich
Maurizio Pollini
Jean-Pierre Rampal
Vadim Repin
Rudolph Serkin
Ravi Sjankar
Ignat Solzhenitsyn
Vladimir Spivakov
Isaac Stern
Alain Trudel
Maxim Vengerov
Eugenia ZukermanEnsembles - Classical Music
Boston Chamber Players
Ensemble Amati
I Musici de Montréal
L’Arsenal à musique
McGill Chamber Orchestra
Ménestriers de France
Minnesota Orchestra
Naples Scarlatti Orchestra
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Orchestre de chambre François Dompierre
Orchestre métropolitain du Grand Montréal
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Orchestre symphonique de Québec
Orchestre symphonique
du conservatoire de musique de Montréal
Petits chanteurs du Mont-Royal
Quartetto della Scala
Red Army Choir
The New York Philharmonic
The Molinari Quartet
The Vienna Philharmonic
Vienna Boys Choir
Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra
Violons du Roy
Singers - Opera
Pierrette Alarie
Cecilia Bartoli
Colette Boky
Maria Callas
José Carreras
Nathalie Choquette
Claude Corbeil
Victoria De Los Angeles
Placido Domingo
Wilhelmenia Fernandez
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Renée Fleming
Maureen Forrester
Hélène Fortin
Lyne Fortin
Karina Gauvin
Sharon Graham
Barbara Hendricks
Ben Heppner
Marc Hervieux
Suzie LeBlanc
Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Julia Migenes-Johnson
Jessye Norman
Marie-Danielle Parent
Luciano Pavarotti
Leontyne Price
Gino Quilico
Louis Quilico
Florence Quivar
Joseph Rouleau
Robert Savoie
Léopold Simoneau
Daniel Taylor
Kiri Te Kanawa
José Van Dam
Jon VickersEnsembles - Opera
Beijing Opera
Bolshoi Opera
Hamburg Opera
La Scala di Milano
Opéra de Montréal
Opéra royal de Wallonie
Royal Swedish Opera
Vienna Opera
- Song
Salvatore Adamo
Paul Anka
Isabelle Aubret
Hugues Aufray
Charles Aznavour
Joan Baez
Joséphine Baker
Barbara
Alain Barrière
Guy Béart
Julos Beaucarne
Beau Dommage
Gilbert Bécaud
Harry Belafonte
Daniel Bélanger
Gilles Bélanger
Dan Bigras
Jane Birkin
Johanne Blouin
Daniel Boucher
Isabelle Boulay
Jacques Brel
Edith Butler
Francis Cabrel
Pierre Calvé
Robert Charlebois
Gregory Charles
Nicola Ciccone
Petula Clark
Renée Claude
Julien Clerc
Bruce Cockburn
Leonard Cohen
Paolo Conte
Corneille
Sylvain Cossette
Elvis Costello
Dalida
Joe Dassin
Chris De Burgh
Luc De Larochellière
Dennis DeYoung
Véronic DiCaire
Céline Dion
Sacha Distel
George Dor
Claude Dubois
Bob Dylan
Eva
Diane Dufresne
Yves Duteil
Lara Fabian
Jean-Pierre Ferland
Léo Ferré
Bryan Ferry
Louise Forestier
Michel Fugain et le Big Bazar
Patsy Gallant
Juliette Gréco
Petru Guelfucci
Darryl Hall et John Oates
Corey Hart
Roger Hodgson
Engelbert Humperdinck
Julio Iglesias
Laurence Jalbert
Michel Jonasz
Tom Jones
Diane Juster
Patricia Kaas
Mory Kante
Serge Lama
Daniel Lanois
Éric Lapointe
Pierre Lapointe
Plume Latraverse
Bernard Lavilliers
Daniel Lavoie
Maxime Leforestier
Jean Leloup
Lynda Lemay
Ute Lemper
Claude Léveillée
Monique Leyrac
Gordon Lightfoot
Helmut Lotti
Michel Louvain
Enrico Macias
Catherine Major
Marjo
Renée Martel
Mireille Mathieu
Maurane
Kate et Anna McGarrigle
Danielle Oddera
Sylvie Paquette
Bruno Pelletier
Claire Pelletier
Marie-Denise Pelletier
Pierre Perret
Paul Piché
Radio Head
Serge Reggiani
Renaud
Ginette Reno
Michèle Richard
Zachary Richard
Judy Richards
Michel Rivard
Alys Robi
Demis Roussos
Martine Saint-Clair
Chloé Sainte-Marie
Henri Salvador
Véronique Sanson
Michel Sardou
Daniel Seff
Marie-Claire Séguin
Richard Séguin
Nathalie Simard
René Simard
Paul Simon
Bruce Springsteen
Sting
Tears for Fears
Lynda Thalie
The Platters
Marie-Jo Thério
The Tragically Hip
Marie-Élaine Thibert
Charles Trenet
Vincent Vallières
Gino Vanelli
Sylvie Vartan
Gilles Vigneault
Roch Voisine
Rufus Wainwright
Roger Whittaker
Brian Wilson
- Humour, Variety and Musicals
Humour and variety
Victor Borge
Arturo Brachetti
Ronnie Burkett
George Burns
John Cleese
Colombaioni
David Copperfield
Michel Courtemanche
Yvon Deschamps
Ding et Dong
Frank Dubosc
Fernandel
André Gagnon
André-Philippe Gagnon
Groupe sanguin
Bernard Haller
Louis-José Houde
Patrick Huard
Imperial Ice Stars
Anthony Kavanagh
Gary Kurtz
Jean Lapointe
Michel Leeb
Pierre Légaré
Daniel Lemire
Lévesque et Turcotte
Jerry Lewis
Liberace
Roland Magdane
Marcel Marceau
Jean-Pierre Marielle
François Massicotte
Martin Matte
Jean-Guy Moreau
Mummenschanz
Jean-Marc Parent
Marie-Lise Pilote
Jerry Seinfeld
Sol
Ti-Gus et Ti-Mousse
Pierre Verville
Johnny Wayne and Frank Schuster
Musicals
Annie
Beauty and the Beast
Cabaret
La Cage aux folles
Can-Can
Cats
Chicago
Defending the Caveman
Evita
Fame – The Musical
Fiddler on the Roof
Forever Tango
Gala
Grease
Jeanne la Pucelle
Jesus Christ Superstar
The King and I
Kiss of the Spider Woman
La Légende de Jimmy
Mame
Mamma Mia!
Man of La Mancha
Me and My Girl
Miss Saigon
The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Music of the Night
My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m in Therapy
Napoléon/Lama
The Phantom of the Opera
Phantom, The American Musical Sensation
Rain – The Beatles Experience
Rent
Singin’ in the Rain
Smokey Joe’s Café
Sophisticated Lady
Starmania
Stomp
La Vie parisienne
West Side Story
42nd Street
- Dance
Compagnies
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
Armitage Ballet
Australian Ballet
Ballet Antonio Gades
Ballet British Columbia
Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève
Ballet folklorico de Mexico
Ballet Preljocaj
Ballet Roland Petit
Ballets africains
Ballets C. de la B.
Ballets de Monte-Carlo
Ballets du XXe siècle
Ballets jazz de Montréal
Ballets modernes du Québec
Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Ballett Frankfurt
Batsheva Dance Company
Béjart Ballet Lausanne
Antonio Canales’s Ballet Flamenco
Carbone 14
Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble
Compagnie de danse Eddy Toussaint
Compagnie Marie Chouinard
Dutch National Ballet
Ensemble de folklore national Les Sortilèges
Feux Follets
Grands Ballets canadiens de Montréal
Hopak Ukrainian Dance Company
Kirov Ballet
La La La Human Steps / Edouard Lock
Lizt Alfonso Danza Cuba
Lord of the Dance
Lyon Opéra Ballet
Margot Fonteyn and the New London Ballet
Mark Morris Dance Group
Martha Graham Dance Company
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Momix
National Ballet of Canada
Nederlands Dans Theatre
O Vertigo
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Pilobolus Dance Theatre
River Dance – The Show
Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Rubberbandance Group
Sanka Juku
Stars of the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballets
Toronto Dance Theatre
Trisha Brown Dance Company
Ukrainian Dance Company
Warsaw Ballet
Wen Wei Dance
Dancers
Frank Augustyn
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Pina Bausch
Maurice Béjart
Juliette Binoche
Anik Bissonnette
Carolyn Carlson
Marie Chouinard
Paul-André Fortier
Margie Gillis
Jeff Hall
Karen Kain
Akram Khan
James Kudelka
Ginette Laurin
Louise Lecavalier
Maguy Marin
Fernand Nault
Rudolf Noureev
Jean-Pierre Perreault
Louis Robitaille
Pierre-Paul Savoie
Win Vandekeybus
- Jazz and World Music
Woody Allen
Kenny Barron
Tony Bennett
George Benson
Paul Bley
François Bourassa
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dave Brubeck
Ray Charles
Holly Cole
Harry Connick Jr.
Chick Corea
Jamie Cullum
Miles Davis
Jack Dejohnette
Paco De Lucia
Lorraine Desmarais
Al Di Meola
Michel Donato
Dr. John
Cesaria Evora
Maynard Ferguson
Ibrahim Ferrer
Ella Fitzgerald
Aretha Franklin
James Gelfand
Joao Gilberto
Dizzy Gillespie
Egberto Gismondi
Philip Glass
Dexter Gordon
Jean-François Groulx
Charlie Haden
Herbie Hancock
Mahalia Jackson
Etta James
Al Jarreau
Keith Jarrett
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Hank Jones
Oliver Jones
BB King
Diana Krall
Bireli Lagrene
Ranee Lee
Michel Legrand
Manhattan Transfer
François Marcaurelle
Ellis Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Bobby McFerrin
John McLaughlin
Pat Metheny
Glenn Miller Orchestra
Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir
Mystère des Voix bulgares
Guy Nadon
Gary Peacock
Oscar Peterson
Astor Piazzola
Pink Martini
John Pizzarelli
Jean-Luc Ponty
Dianne Reeves
Max Roach & Mal Waldron Duets
Sonny Rollins
George Shearing
Wayne Shorter
Horace Silver
Mike Stern
Toots Thielemans
Mel Tormé
McCoy Tyner
Uzeb
Jean Vanasse
Vic Vogel
Charlie Watts
Carol Welsman
Jean-Pierre Zanella
- Theatre
Artists
Jean-Louis Barrault
Raymond Bouchard
Michel Côté
Jean Duceppe
Michel Dumont
Françoise Faucher
Sami Frey
Gabriel Gascon
Marcel Gauthier
Benoit Girard
Andrée Lachapelle
Rita Lafontaine
Jean Leclerc
Monique Leyrac
Hélène Loiselle
Louise Marleau
Monique Mercure
Marc Messier
Monique Miller
Jean-Louis Millette
Patricia Nolin
Sir Laurence Olivier
Béatrice Picard
Gérard Poirier
Guy Provost
Madeleine Renaud
Paul Savoie
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Louise Turcot
Compagnies
Comédie française
Compagnie Jean Duceppe
Japan’s Kabuki Theatre
National Theatre of Greece
Piccolo Teatro di Milano
Royal Shakespeare Company
Théâtre du Nouveau Monde
- Festivals
Festival des Films du Monde
Festival du Monde Arabe de Montréal
Festival international du film sur l’art
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal
Festival international de la littérature
Festival Juste pour rire
Festival Mondial d’Expo 67
Festival Montréal en lumière
Festival TransAmériques
FrancoFolies de Montréal
Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois
Chairs, General Directors, and members of the Board of Directors of Place des Arts
- Chairs
Until 1963 Louis-A. Lapointe
1963-1968 Me François Mercier
1968-1972 Me Marcel Piché
1972-1974 Raymond Crépault
1974-1982 Me Jean-Claude Delorme
1982-1987 Guy Joron
1988-1992 Danièle Touchette Robitaille
1992-1995 Roger D. Landry
1995-2002 Me Clément Richard
2002-2003 Normand Legault
2003-2004 Judge Alan B. Gold
2004-2008 François Macerola
2008- Jean LaurinDr. Wilfrid Pelletier (Lifetime Honorary Chair)
- General Directors
Until 1964 Maurice Germain
1964-1986 Gérard Lamarche
1986-1993 Guy Morin
1993-1994 Roger D. Landry
1994-2000 France Fortin
2000-2001 Clément Richard
2001-2012 Marie Lavigne
2012- Marc Blondeau
- Members of the Boards of Directors of the Centre Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier CorporationFrom 1956 to 1964
Jules Bazin
Guy Beaulne
Roland Bock
Augustin Brassard
Samuel Bronfman
A.-J. Campbell
Albert Castonguay
Vincent Chené
Nantel David
Régent Desjardins
Jean-Louis Doucet
Jean Drapeau
Jean Dupire
Armand Dupuis
Guy Frégault
Paul Gouin
George Gould
Graham Gould
Jean-C. Lallemand
Claude Laurence
Robert Letendre
Roger Martel
Roger Mathieu
Cecil J. McDougall
J. Bartlett Morgan
Jean Octeau
Herbert J. O’Connell
Roland Paquette
Claude Robillard
John P. Rowat
Charles Roy
Paul-Émile Sénécal
John Lynch Staunton
Roy E. Wagar
- Members of the Boards of Directors of the Régie and Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal
From 1964 to 2009
Janine Beaulieu
Michel Bélanger
Louis Bernard
Louise Lemieux-Bérubé
Alain Bouchard
Frédérique Cardinal
Madeleine Careau
François Chagnon
Sylvie Chagnon
Nathalie Chalifour
André Charron
Corinne Côté-Lévesque
Nantel David
Céline Delorme
Roch Demers
Claude Des Rosiers
Paul-A. Dionne
Charles Doucet
Suzanne Mia Dumont
Michael Fainstat
Monique Ferron
Roger Galipeau
Louisiane Gauthier
Rolland Giguère
Margaret Rose (Margie) Gillis
Jacques Girard
Sylvie Godin
Yoland Guérard
Jean-Paul Jeannotte
Flore Jutras
Naïm Katan
Jean-Claude Keromnes
Laurence-Alexander Lafford
Marie Lambert
Georges-Émile Lapalme
Marie Lavigne
Nicole Leblanc
Hélène Loiselle
John P.S. Mackenzie
Jean Morissette
Gratia O’Leary
J.P.S. Ostiguy
Louise Otis
Myriam Ouimet
Salomon Oziel
Victor Panaccio
Marie-Thérèse Paquin
Marcel Pepin
Germain Perreault
Denis Piché
Soeur Stella Plante
Maurice Podbrey
Gaston Pouliot
Rachel H. Renaud
Jean-Louis Roux
Salvatore Sciascia
Barbara Seal
Louise Sicuro
Léopold Simoneau
E. Noël Spinelli
Michel Tourangeau
Marcel Trudeau
Robert Vinet
Artists in the collection of visual artwork
(non-exhaustive list)
- The Artists
Barnabus Akkashoonark
Louis Archambault
Jean Aubert
Micheline Beauchemin
Serge Beaumont
Luc Bergeron
Suzanne Bergeron
Louise Lemieux-Bérubé
Claude Bettinger
Max Bill
David Bolduc
Jordi Bonet
Claude Cormier
Charles Daudelin
Luis Feito
Marcelle Ferron
Lucio Fontana
Peter Gnass
Pierre Granche
Julien Hébert
Christian Houle
Jacques Hurtubise
Innukpuk
André Jasmin
Marcel Jean
Jasper Johns
Jules Jouant
Anne Kahane
Michel Labbé
Richard Lacroix
Robert LapalmeTimYum Lau
Serge Lemoyne
Rita Letendre
Gino Lorcini
Elizabeth MacQueen
Lauréat Marois
Jean McEwen
Jean Messagier
Claes Oldenburg
Marthe Pan
Gérard Papin
Anne Paré
Alfred Pellan
Jean-Pierre Perreault
Jean-Paul Riopelle
Dominique Rolland
Robert Roussil
Mario Roy
Hans Schleeh
Gérard Schneider
Norman Slater
David Sorensen
Elzéard Soucy
Anaït A. Stephens
Françoise Sullivan
Antoni Tapies
Arto Tchakmaktchian
Fernand Toupin
Alice Winant
Zao Wou Ki
- Ephemeral artwork and its designers
Vert forêt – Éric Sauvé, in 2003
La Ville aux animaux – Jean-François Cooke and Pierre Sasseville, in 2004
Alvéole – Marc Dulude, in 2005
Bâtons de prière – Élyse De Lafontaine, in 2006
Se mettre au vert – Francis Montillaud, in 2007
Les Pelleteuses de nuages – Éric Daoust, Jean-François Potvin, and Donald Potvin of BOSSES Design, in 2008
Arc-en-ciel – Philippe Allard and Justin Duchesneau, in 2009
Place des Arts’ Architects
- The Architects
Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Michaud and Sise for La Grande Salle, today called Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, inaugurated in 1963.
David, Barott, Boulva for the Theatre building housing Théâtre Maisonneuve and Théâtre Port-Royal, inaugurated in 1966.
David, Boulva and Cleve for the Théâtre du Café de la Place and the design of the underground corridor leading to Complexe Desjardins, in 1975.
Jodoin Lamarre Pratte and Associates for the Musée d’art contemporain, inaugurated in 1992.
Dimakopoulos and Associates for the outdoor Esplanade, inaugurated in 1993.
Bess Pappas for the renovation of the corridor leading to the Metro and the design of the Hall des Pas perdus, carried out in 1995.
Consortium Menkès, Schooner, Dagenais, Le Tourneux / Provencher, Roy Jean-Pierre Le Tourneux for the Grand Foyer culturel, carried out in 2009-2010.
Place des Arts’ logo
- Logo
It was in 1960 that a member of the Board of Directors, Claude Robillard, proposed the idea of holding a public competition for the choice of a symbol to identify the architectural complex. Some one hundred projects were submitted meeting the following criteria: the symbol had to include three fundamental elements, that is, the three performance halls in the initial project. Gilles Robert, a professor of graphic arts in Montréal, was the winner. His sketch was an interlaced design based on the letter A, the first letter in the word Art. Three interlocking coloured spots represented Place des Arts’ three main performance halls. While remaining true to the original design, Place des Arts’ logo was updated twice: in 1992 by Pierre-Yves Pelletier, who gave the A a more stylized look, and on the occasion of the institution’s 40th anniversary, when the logo was rejuvenated by the placement of the stylized letter in a circle and the addition of the Place des Arts name.