A brief history of Urban Art, from Cornbread to Laurent Gascon
Speaker: Archie Fineberg
When: Thursday, May 21, 2026, 19:30 - 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall
288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period
The speaker will offer some of his books for sale at $30 each, tax included:
. Montreal’s Street Art Gallery II
. Laurent Gascon, Ceramic Tile Portraits in Public Spaces– Portraits en céramique dans les espaces publics.
Archie Fineberg’s interest in urban art began in the spring of 2007. Gradually transitioning to full retirement from a career in management and administration, he was looking for an interesting activity to fill his added leisure time.
He was aware of the growing presence of wall-art in the streets and alleyways of Montreal and began photographing this art in his own neighbourhood, NDG. Before long he was hooked on the brightly coloured, often fanciful murals, wild-style tags and expressions of social commentary. He was particularly taken by the skill and aesthetic sensibility that were evident in the work, and the adeptness with which large images, often of great intricacy, were created on a variety of surfaces. Over that first summer, he explored more remote parts of the city, crisscrossing the island of Montreal and photographing scores of images. It quickly became a passion. In the 18 years that followed he accumulated a sizeable collection.
In 2017, he published his first book, Montreal’s Street Art Gallery and in the following year its translation, Montréal, galerie à ciel ouvert. These were followed in 2022 with the sequel book, Montreal’s Street Art Gallery II.
In 2025, he published his third book on the theme of urban art, Laurent Gascon, Ceramic Portraits in Public Spaces - Portraits en céramique dans les espaces publiques. In writing this book, he has taken an interesting new approach that focuses on the career and philosophy of one specific, innovated Montreal artist, Laurent Gascon. This talented, innovative, and prolific artist has enhanced our city’s urban scape throughout his 60-year lifework, and during the past 17 years, he has focused his talent on honouring the achievements of eighteen Québec celebrities in the performing arts. Expressing his admiration of these celebrities, he created a portrait mural of each one. The design and medium he employs is unique. His process is fascinating, using techniques that he developed that result in the uniqueness of his installations.
In his presentation, Archie Fineberg will reveal this and more about Gascon and the people he has immortalized in his portraits.
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Come and discover the exterior and interior architecture of the four successive churches of the Parish of St. Joachim de la Pointe-Claire. You will also learn anecdotes about their history: from a collection theft in 1732 to a patriot's speech in 1837, from a contractor's bankruptcy to the allocation of pews.
Presentation of the role of seigneuresses, those wives of the great landowners from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The conference features five of them: Louise de Ramezay (Sorel), Louise-Élizabeth de Joybert de Marson (Vaudreuil), Louise-Madeleine Chaussegros de Léry (Rigaud), Marguerite Dufrost de la Jemmerais, mother of Youville (Châteauguay), and Jane Ellice (Beauharnois). These ladies, through their originality and strength of character, would mark in their own way the destiny of their seigniory, shaped by the atmosphere of those times, and the environment where they lived.
Michel Bélisle, author and lecturer, was born in Montréal. He studied Anthropology - Ethnology at Université de Montréal, and Design & Environment at UQAM. He worked as assistant-curator at McCord Museum, curator at Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, curator at Trestler House in Vaudreuil-Dorion. He was guest curator for many special exhibitions and wrote several books and brochures on Montreal West-Island and Vaudreuil regions.
Ryan Young is a Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue City Councillor and a College Professor at JohnAbbott College who has done extensive research about the history of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. Every year, he leads a number of historical walking tours in the old village of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.
nned the next day by the Allies.
The Jerusalem Cyclorama, a tourist site of invaluable heritage and artistic value, continues to inspire admiration from visitors of all faiths. This cyclorama is the largest in North America, measuring 14 metres high and 110 metres long.
Charles Wilson (1808-1877) was a prominent Montreal businessman and politician, best known as the city’s mayor from 1851 to 1853. In 1852, he became the first mayor directly elected by those eligible to cast their votes. However, Wilson’s political success and popularity were short-lived. Governing Montreal during the 1850s was not an easy task and, in a city marked by intense ethnic and religious strife, Charles Wilson could not avoid becoming a polarizing figure. 