Age of Union
Centre
Art, Culture
& Nature
At the intersection of art, culture, and nature, the Centre is a multidisciplinary space devoted to art and the environment devoted to raising awareness and mobilizing the public on issues related to the environment and nature. Its program is composed of exhibitions, immersive experiences, films, workshops, conferences, and guided tours, fostering dialogue and enriching exchanges merging arts, culture, environment, and ecology.
The 12,000-square-foot Centre includes two floors of exhibitions, a projection room, immersive permanent installations, a multifunctional event space, and an outdoor space with a pool and gardens.
There is no visitor parking at the Centre, but there are street parking and commercial parking lots close by.
The Centre is not accessible to wheelchair users. The 2nd floor is only accessible through a staircase. Guide dogs are permitted in the Centre’s public spaces.
5 min walk from De Castelnau metro station (blue line); 55, 92, 93 buses; and Bixi stations.
We will be open every Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting Oct. 6, 2023.
We welcome all types of groups for guided tours. Visits must be booked at least two weeks in advance. Fees are $5 per person or a minimum rate of $80 per group. Tour duration is 1.5 hours and is available Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free guided tours are offered on the first Saturday of each month at 12 p.m. in French and 2 p.m. in English.
- $10 for adults
- $8 for students and 65+
- Free for children under 12
- Free for Musées Montréal cardholders
- Free the first Saturday of the month (Oct. 7, Nov. 4, Dec. 3)
Permanent Collection
Explore our permanent collection, a diverse selection of artworks that will inspire you to learn, discover, and ignite change toward a brighter future.
Earth Room
The Earth Room explores the ways in which we relate to different facets of nature. From the iron crystals at the heart of the Earth’s core to the solar winds that dance through the geomagnetic field, suspended in the balance are all life forms. The Earth Room is a space of myriad scales, where visitors assume the pose of earthly creatures and have their perspectives filtered through teeming vegetation, light, and sound.
Glacier Cave
Glacier Cave is an interactive installation that meditates on the questions surrounding our complex relationship to water — as a commodity and as a healer — and the ways in which plastic and ocean narratives are currently intertwined. Fabricated with post-consumer plastic, Glacier Cave draws on the imagery of plastic refuse islands in the ocean, vis-a-vis our collective cognizance of the sacred value and mystic beauty of ancient ice.
Kenauk Lightboxes
Installation Kenauk Lightboxes features two large-scale, illuminated images of the Kenauk territory — a Canadian hotspot of biodiversity located between Montreal and Ottawa. Foon sees the lightboxes as a call to protect the last of the untouched, pristine areas around the world. She also highlights the juxtaposition of installing these images in an architectural gallery space, encouraging us to reflect on the current state of the natural world and our actions as a community on this planet.
Lava Cave
Lava Cave is a multi-sensory immersive installation designed to transport visitors to the heart of the earth, evoking the sensations of being inside a magmatic womb where shearing forces and tectonic pressure are constantly at work. The installation invites visitors to explore the space through all their senses and to contemplate the profound physical manifestation of the earth’s inner workings.
Sun Room
The Sun Room installation was created as a functional room for healing and meditation in response to the city’s dark winter days. A ceiling-animated light sculpture is accompanied by Seasonal Affective Disorder light boxes for heliotherapy within a room architecturally augmented to eliminate the sense of depth and time by means of complete immersion. The room bathes in non-directional light enabled by curved walls and the elimination of corners, which minimizes shadows, and results in an even saturation of brightness and colour. The multi-tiered conical shape of the sculpture produces a hypnotic effect.
The Hive
The Hive is an immersive and interactive 360° installation allowing visitors to experience nature intimately. Just like a fetus in a womb, droning soundscapes prepare them for a journey where nature’s secrets unfold. Using their hands, participants are able to learn about honeybees’ ways to communicate, interact with different species of our oceans, travel through our galaxy, and dive into natural phenomena like the aurora borealis and hurricanes to create and discover in collaboration with each other in an immersive and intuitive visual experience. As an allegory of nature’s richness, they discover the fascinating aspects of our planet. The piece is an attempt to evoke the environmental emergency within a playful, spectacular and collaborative experience.
Ecosystème Alpha
The arcade is a wing of the Earth Centre that celebrates innovative design, technology, and creation while allowing visitors to learn about ecology and environmental sustainability. The first acquisition, Écosystème by Aude Guivarc’h, is an allegory of the state of our planet and the impact of humans on it. With a direct reference to the expression “There is no Planet B,” the installation features a 3D-printed mountain relief with projections of natural cycles, water, wind, erosion, and seasonal changes. When one gets too close and obstructs the projection — or worse, touches its surface — the artwork reacts and generates a destruction sequence illustrating the human responsibility for environmental destruction.
Past
Exhibitions
Touched By The Tears of a Butterfly by Mike MacDonald, curated by Adrian A. Stimson
Centre, News
Age of Union Centre Announces New Fall-Winter Season Exhibits and Extended Hours
Centre
Artist Rebecca Foon Invites Moment of Reflection with Visual Installation “Kenauk Lightboxes”
Centre, Profile
Artist Kelly Nunes Explores Relationship Between Water and Plastic in “Glacier Cave” Installation
America
Age of Union Launches Earth Centre in Montreal
America
Indigenous Artist-Curator Adrian Stimson Sees New Directions for the Earth
Centre, News
Age of Union Unveils Latest Exhibition at Earth Centre Fall/Winter Opening
Centre, News
Age of Union Announces Spring/Summer 2023 Earth Centre Exhibition
News