Changing Realities, Changing Practices: Museums, Training and Professional Development in Québec

Abstract

Over the past several decades, Québec has distinguished itself in Canada and abroad for its innovative approaches to museological practice and cultural heritage. A number of factors account for this distinctive practice: influential figures, creative experimentation, and Québec's deep social, cultural and political investment in museums and heritage among them. Museum practices that were influenced largely by the new museology movement of the 1970s, as well as by Québec's coming of age in the post‐Expo 67 era, as Raymond Montpetit has argued, have continued to evolve in resonance with ongoing societal transformations, a broadening heritage movement, as well as the effects of globalised and transnational cultures. Another interesting aspect of Québec's museological practices has also undoubtedly derived from the training and professional development programmes put in place by the province's association for museums and their professionals, the Société des musées du Québec (SMQ), since the late 1970s, as well as by the academic museology programmes introduced a little over a decade later.This article will examine, in light of the transformations that have profoundly affected the contemporary museum world, the changing skill sets required by museum professionals, with special reference to how professional training and university programmes have evolved to address these needs in Québec since the 1970s. In a first instance, the contributions made by the SMQ towards the professionalisation of the field, through the development of a range of tools and activities, will be presented and analysed. Second, the creation and multiplication of graduate museology programmes—including Canada's first and still only doctorate in museology at the Université du Québec à Montréal—will be discussed. We consider how these education and training programmes have contributed to capacity building in the museum sector, in light of the field's emergent requirements, and in response to changing collections, management, communication and ethical paradigms, to meet the needs of today's community of museum professionals.