Summer season brings new exhibitions and live music to Musée de la Gare

By Jamie McKenzie

Left: Mathias St-Jean, Team Leader/summer student at Musee de la Gare Right: Marie-Pier Valiquette, Director of Musee de la Gare

A new exhibit featuring the history of the town of Temiscaming can be seen in the middle of the main floor of the Train Station Museum in Temiscaming. “Temiscaming: The Tale of a City” is the primary exhibit at the museum and will remain on display until September 2, 2024.

“With the announcement that’s been made by RYAM we thought it was important to bring back a feeling of being proud of living in Temiscaming,” said Marie-Pier Valiquette, the museum’s director.

The exhibit brings visitors through the history of how the town was developed, beginning in the late 1800’s when European’s came to the area in search of the perfect location for a new mill.

“I think it’s a really interesting story of why they came from Europe and they found that geographically this was the best place to put the mill,” said Valiquette.

The summer season kicked off the first weekend of July, with some live music and a new dance floor – a painted mural on the bike path that’s behind the museum.

Valiquette says they also opened their archives to the public for this season, for anyone who would like to take a deeper dive into the history of the town.

Visitor looking at the Temiscaming: Tale of a City exhibit

“We have all the old newspapers from 1950’s to the 2000’s, old photos of the community,” she says. “Hundreds of photos that people can go through if they want, old plans of the houses, the mill, the school, the bank, there’s lots of archives that we have so people who are interested in going further, they can do that.”

The museum also has a second exhibit for the season called, Appartenir (belonging).

“It’s nine artists from Abitibi-Temiscaming that identify as women who talk in their work about belonging to their community or territory,” said Valiquette.

The exhibit features artwork in different mediums from sculpture to paint and more.

“I thought it was perfect timing to talk about belonging to a territory with all that’s happening here, I think it’s a good thing to talk about,” she said.

Both exhibits will be at the museum until September 2.

The summer season also brings live music. Once a week for the month of July people can head to the museum to hear live music, free of charge.

“We have a stage outside and we like to put together little shows that are always free during the summer.”

There are shows on July 12^th, 18^th, and 25^th starting at 7:00 p.m.

“You can bring your camping chairs, it’s always fun, it’s casual, always great artists, so we welcome anyone to come to those shows,” said Valiquette.