Call for Artistic Projects: L’art de perruquer | Parallel Play

This exhibition is a collaboration between two cultural institutions that are historically distinct, but both deeply rooted in their communities: the Stewart Hall Art Gallery, located in a historic manor that was converted into a cultural centre, and the Musée d’art de Joliette, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. 

With L’art de perruquer / Parallel Play, the curators want to consider how these places of memory, culture, and transmission can be reinvested as living, inhabited, and activated spaces. While acknowledging practices that already use this approach, they are interested in how these have evolved and what new strategies might foster dialogue between the artist, the museum, and its communities. 

L'art de perruquer / Parallel Play aims to reimagine the museum space and art gallery, in both literal and figurative terms, as spaces for living, presence, and creativity. Drawing from Michel de Certeau’s book The Practice of Everyday Life, the concept of “perruquer” refers to everyday ruses, discreet but clever know-how, and the practice of subverting institutional codes for collective and community purposes. It’s an invitation to slip into a location’s interstitial spaces to transform (in subtle or unsubtle ways) constraints into creative opportunities. 

How can discarded things be used again? How can fragments and cast-offs be valorized before they are forgotten? How can a museum be physically, symbolically, or emotionally inhabited? How can we explore the boundaries between an artwork and everyday space, between the museum as institution and symbolic environment? 

This project invites us to imagine the museum and the gallery not as fixed exhibition spaces, but as dynamic sites to inhabit, become involved with—and even disrupt. By integrating the realms of the intimate and the domestic, the exhibition space becomes a living space, a refuge where one can freely express their creativity. Artists are encouraged to activate these spaces through simple or subversive gestures, through interventions or DIY practices that use institutional frameworks as creative material. Proposals may also include ephemeral or collaborative experiences with the public. 

Professional artists and collectives are invited to submit new or adapted projects for this two-part exhibition, which will be presented across both institutions. Proposed projects can be shown in one or both venues, depending on their nature. 

Artists and/or collectives should: 

1. view the space or institution as a playground where audiences can be part of the work;
2. create a relationship between place, artwork, and space 

Proposals may include (but not be limited to)

1. inhabitable or immersive installations or an artwork that inhabits the space;
2. in situ performances or actions;
3. interventions in unconventional areas (hallways, stairwells, etc.);
4. participatory or collaborative projects with members of the public;
5. works that examine the notion of the museum-house, the house-museum, or a place of living memory. 

Exhibition schedule 

1. Stewart Hall Art Gallery: July 5 to August 23, 2026
2. Musée d’art de Joliette: June 27 to September 7, 2026 

Your proposal should include the following elements

1. Curriculum Vitae
2. A brief project description (250 words)
3. Visual documentation (5 images, a link to your website or Instagram page)
4. Other relevant documents (optional) 

Please note 

This call for submissions is for professional artists only, as recognized under the Act Respecting the Professional Status of Artists (L.R.Q., chapter S-32.01). 

Selected artists will receive an exhibition fee in accordance with CARFAC standards. 

Transportation costs will be covered, in whole or in part, as per agreement.

To learn more 

To learn more about the Stewart Hall Art Gallery and the Musée d’art de Joliette, please visit their websites: 

Stewart Hall Art Gallery: ptclr.ca/StewartHall 

Musée d’art de Joliette: museejoliette.org 

Submission and Contact 

For more information about this call for submissions, please contact: galerie.stewarthall@pointe-claire.ca 

Please submit your proposals to the same address with the subject line: MAJ Stewart Hall Project 

Only selected artists will be contacted. Results will be announced by January 15, 2026.

Curators: Manel Benchabane and Ariane De Blois

Deadline: December 8, 2025