Conferences and Symposia

Costume Balls: The symposium

March 20 and 21, 2025
The McCord Stewart Museum’s specialists, artists and authors share new learning derived from the full spectrum of the process of creating the exhibition Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870-1927, from the slow curatorial process of identification and analysis of the extant garments and visual culture, through the subsequent rethinking of our objectives for conservation interventions, to addressing historical injustices in impersonations of Indigeneity.

Watch the talks online, available on the Museum Blog:

• Day 1
  This recording includes the four talks from March, 20, 2025
• Day 2
  This recording includes the eight talks from March, 21, 2025

McCord Stewart Discoveries

March 22, 2024 | Half-Day Conference
The Museum’s experts present the research projects they’ve been working on and share their recent discoveries related to the Museum’s collections and archives.

Watch the presentations online, available on the Museum Blog:

• James Duncan: Art correspondent for The Illustrated London News
  Presentation in French by Christian Vachon, Head, Collections Management and Curator, Documentary Art.
• Uncovering emotions in the archives: The Shared Emotions project
  Presentation in French by Mathieu Lapointe, Curator, Archives.
• The Curious Case of the Kul-e-Tuk Parka: Appropriation of an Inuit Garment
  Presentation in English by Alexis Walker, Associate Curator, Dress, Fashion and Textiles.
• Threads of Black Emancipation in an Eighteenth-Century Dress
  Presentation in English by Cynthia Cooper, Head, Collections and Research; Curator, Dress, Fashion and Textiles

Around Wampum: Histories and Perspectives

February 22 and 23, 2024 | International symposium
Capitalizing on the unprecedented interest generated by Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy, the Museum organized a symposium devoted to these unique cultural objects, bringing together a dozen Indigenous, Quebecois, Canadian and international specialists.

Watch the talks online, available on the Museum Blog:

• Day 1
  This recording includes talks from February 22, 2024.
• Day 2
  This recording includes talks from February 23, 2024.

McCord Stewart Discoveries | Half-Day Conference
March 2023
Watch the presentations online, available on the Museum Blog.

• Wampum Belts at the McCord Stewart Museum: History, Meaning, Identification
  Presentation in French by Jonathan Lainey, Curator, Indigenous Cultures
• Weaving Art into Function: Northern Northwest Coast Basketry
  Presentation in English by Sara Serban, Conservator
• The Photographer’s Vacation: Brian Merrett’s Europe 72 Series
  Presentation in French by Zoë Tousignant, Curator, Photography
• Women’s Tailoring in Montreal in the Late 19th Century
  Presentation In English by Cynthia Cooper, Head, Collections and Research; Curator, Dress, Fashion and Textiles

Collecting Knowledge: New Dialogues on McCord Museum Collections
November 2013
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From New France to the Province of Quebec (1754-1776)
September 2010
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Montreal Jewish Life: The Thirties and Forties
April 2010
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Bodies on Display
November 2008
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The Golden Mountain: Canada and China, Interconnected
November 2007
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Images of Society, Variable Trajectories
September 2007
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Trading Places: Commerce and the Evolution of the City
November 2006
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Antoine Plamondon: The Full Portrait
November 2006
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The Abstract Edge
Robert Davidson and Contemporary Aboriginal Arts Practice
May 2006
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Picturing Her: Images of Girlhood
December 2005
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What’s for Dinner? The Daily Meal Through History
November 2005
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Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Child Health in the 20^th Century
October 2004
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