A New Art and Health Advisory Committee for the MMFA
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is continuing to pursue the path of innovation, announcing the creation of the new Art and Health Advisory Committee, at the behest of Nathalie Bondil, Director General and Chief Curator. It will be chaired by Rémi Quirion, Quebec’s chief scientist and chair of the three Fonds de recherche du Québec, who recently joined the Museum’s Board of Trustees. The committee’s members include experts in health, art therapy, research and the arts, as well as representatives from the philanthropic community and the MMFA.
“I’m convinced that art is good for you, and we intend to prove it scientifically,” said Ms. Bondil. “With the success of our growing number of wellness and art therapy initiatives, I wanted to pursue this path of holistic, multidisciplinary innovation by creating this committee, a first for a fine arts museum.
With this new committee, the development of the wellness component of the Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy, opened in November 2016 (see appendix), will be able to realize its full potential.
The first art museum to devote spaces physical areas for art and wellness is now adding an advisory committee to support these efforts. An office for consultations by healthcare professionals, physicians and art therapists and an Art Hive – a space for creativity open to the community under the supervision of an art therapist – will soon be up and running.
The committee’s members are:
CHAIR – Rémi Quirion, Quebec’s chief scientist, Fonds de recherche du Québec
VICE-CHAIR – Stephanie Rossy-Beauchamp, administrator, The Rossy Family Foundation
Nathalie Bondil, Director General and Chief Curator
Thomas Bastien, Acting Director, Department of Education and Community Programmes
Olivier Beauchet, director, Centre of Excellence on Aging and Chronic Disease, Joseph Kaufmann Chair in Geriatric Medicine, Jewish General Hospital
Michel de la Chenelière, President, Fondation Michel de la Chenelière
Josée Leclerc, associate professor/chair, Department of Creative Arts Therapies, Concordia University
Julie Payette, company administrator and scientific communicator
Isabelle Peretz, co-director, BRAMS (International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research), Université de Montréal
Denise Pérusse, director, Défis de société et maillages intersectoriels, Fonds de recherche du Québec
Louise Poissant, scientific director, Fond de Recherche du Québec
Philippe Walker, chief scientific officer, Neomed
Robert J. Zatorre, co-director, International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research, McGill University professor, Montreal Neurological Institute
Claire Webster, founder and president, Caregiver Crosswalk Inc.
