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May 1 - May 31 2020

THE MSC – A 20-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

On the morning of May 1st 2000, the iSci Centre opened its doors. 13.3 million visitors and a name change later, we're happy to share with you some of the highlights of the last two decades!

The Science Centre hosts Journey to Space, featuring a full-size replica of an International Space Station module.

After winning the Télé-Québec - Coup de coeur du jury prize de la Société des musées du Québec, the Science Centre On The Road program expands. In collaboration with Volvo and thanks to a donation from the Trottier Foundation, this innovative program takes the science out of the Centre to meet students with special needs everywhere in Québec, including way up north!

 

Journey to space

Voyage dans l'espace

 

MSC on the road

CSM sur la route

The Science Centre is overrun with spiders! For the first time in its history, the MSC welcomes living specimens with Spiders: From Fear to Fascination. The exhibition's success confirms that even the creepiest creatures can pass from fear to fascination.

The Science Centre hosts a special event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, with none other than David Saint-Jacques in his first public appearance since his journey into space.

The permanent exhibition Science 26, a visitor favourite since 2007, closes its doors after 12 years of dedicated service, a record that probably won't be beaten. It is replaced by the highly interactive Explore, which lets visitors discover basic scientific principles (PS: We retained the classics from Science 26).

Araignées

DSJ

EXPLORE

For more than 50 years, Montréal has carved out a special place in the world of animation, much of it due to the National Film Board. That made the Science Centre a natural choice to host the exhibition DreamWorks: From Sketch to Screen.

The Science Centre hosts a real 3-billion-year-old lunar rock. Thanks to a collaboration with NASA, visitors can now touch the Moon. Literally!

The first edition of Women and Girls of Science as part of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, February 11. The goal of the event is to stimulate girls' interest in scientific careers. To support us in this project, prestigious collaborators, including Ubisoft, the Polytechnique and Element AI, joined this special day.

Dreamworks

roche

Filles

After major renovations, the IMAX® TELUS theatre reopens its doors and presents IMAX laser technology. Equipped with ultra 4K definition and a state-of-the-art sound system, the Science Centre theatre offers an incomparable immersive experience.

As part of the celebrations of Montréal's 375th anniversary and Canada's 150th, the Science Centre presents Indigenous Ingenuity, highlighting the inventiveness of the First Peoples. The exhibition is a great success and is still touring the country today.

IMAX

Génie

The people who gave us the exhibition Body World 2 is back with Animals Inside Out, featuring a giraffe so tall that it is a real pain in the neck for our teams.

A milestone is reached. 2 millions students visited the Centre on a school visit. By investing heavily in school programs and with the help of its Foundation, the Science Centre was able to develop a leading expertise in science education.

 

animal

groupe

With Montréal becoming a global leader in video games in the 21st century, the Science Centre features the exhibition Game On in partnership with Ubisoft, the French company that started it all by moving to Montréal in 1998.

The Science Centre hosts the annual conference of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC). In order to stay on the cutting edge of new ideas, the Centre has always been an active member of major Canadian and international associations in the field of museums and science and technology centres.

Fall 2015 Dinosaurs Unearthed enthralls hundreds of thousands of little kids.

The first phase of Human is unveiled. This new exhibition explores the many metamorphoses of a fascinating creature: us!

Gameon

Dinos

humain

Cro-Magnons migrate into the Science Centre with the exhibition Lascaux Caves, a first in North America. More evidence that science is not only ubiquitous; it is prehistoric! The exhibition invites visitors to discover a major site of Paleolithic art.

Fabrik, a permanent exhibition along the lines of tinkering labs, is created at the Science Centre. Its engineering challenges still delight both young and old today. A few years later, her "little sister" was born at the VilVite in Bergen, Norway. 

 

Lascaux

Credit: COSMOS Photos

The Science Centre becomes a division of Canada Lands Company, a para-governmental organization that also manages the CN Tower in Toronto.

Former astronaut Julie Payette is named director of the Science Centre.

The exhibition Truth or Lie opens its doors. Ahead of its time, it includes coverage of “fake news”, an expression that will take off three years later. The online Truth or Lie game is still relevant today.

Julie Payette

vérité ou mensonge

Opening of Clic!, a permanent exhibition for curious kids aged 4 to 7. They can build, collaborate and join in activities with "no parents allowed".

The Force is with us. There's excitement in the Old Port as the Science Centre again collaborates with Lucasfilm to bring the most popular movie franchise of all time into the museum world. The exhibition Star Wars Identities is unveiled as a world premiere at a star-studded event. Its the biggest technical challenge in the history of the Centre but it becomes the second most popular exhibition ever, in addition to having an impressive international career.

In November, the exhibition Musik: From Sound to Emotion opens with members of Simple Plan in attendance. They collaborated on the exhibition and a complete section is dedicated to their career. Welcome to my life! The exhibition was later hosted in Sweden and New Zealand.

Clic

SWID

Simple Plan

Indiana Jones lands at the Science Centre. The exhibition Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology, a collaboration between X3, the Science Centre and Lucasfilm, opens as a world premiere. Without the snakes!

Did you know? Véronique Cloutier, Marc-André Fleury and Kris Letang all eloped at the Science Centre. From Ferrari go Google and Joseph Ribkoff, our hall rentals service helped organised thousands of successful corporate events.

 

Indiana

locsalles

Sex: A Tell-all Exhibition opens its doors. In addition to telling all, it is much talked about. It will travel across the country (including to Regina, Vancouver and Kitchener) and win several awards:

•    2011 Cascade Award, Best Exhibition, from the Canadian Association of Science Centres

•    2011 Excellence Award,  Exhibition, from the Société des musées québécois

A video from the exhibition: "How To Put A Condom On" hold the record for the most views on the Centre's YouTube channel with more than 750 000 (on both languages)!

 

Sexe

In partnership with One Drop, the Science Centre premieres the exhibition AQUA, exploring access to water. It is another important milestone in the fruitful collaboration between Guy Laliberté and the Old Port of Montréal Corporation.

AQUA

Montréal + U2 = "Desire". Red carpet launch of the film U23D with an outdoor stage, stars, a tribute group, and paparazzi. During this period, Montréal becomes one of the cities selling the most IMAX tickets in the world,  cementing a love affair that has lasted more than 30 years.

U23D

Body Worlds 2 breaks the record for Science Centre ticket sales (more than 374,000), an achievement that still stands. Near the end of its run, the sold-out exhibition is open 24 hours a day! It is the first international exhibition presented at the Science Centre, but certainly not the last.

The permanent exhibitions are expanded with the inauguration of Imagine, idTV, Mission Gaia and Science 26. Le Devoir calls them "Spectacular, mystifying, totally wild!"  

In partnership with the Conférence Régionale des Élus and the Government of Quebec, the Science Centre launches the Eureka! Festival, a huge, free outdoor science fair that grows over time to become the biggest in the country.

Monde du corps

IDTV

Eureka

The IMAX® TELUS theatre inaugurates a long-running holiday tradition with Santa vs. the Snowman 3D, which will screen every December for a decade.

Pere No

The IMAX® theatre in the Old Port officially becomes the IMAX® TELUS theatre. The future would be bright for a partnership that now has lasted 15 years!

The exhibition X-treme Rotation turns heads. There is even a skatepark temporarily installed in the Centre. More evidence that science is ubiquitous.

IMAX

CSI is not the only crime-solving hit at the turn of the millennium.  The exhibition Autopsy of a Murder, produced by the Science Centre in collaboration with the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale du Québec, investigates the forensic professions.

The exhibition will go on to win numerous awards including:

•    2005 Grand Prize, Education, for the Autopsy of a Murder interactive website

•    2005 Excellence Award,  Exhibition, from the Société des musées québécois

•    2005 Equinox Prize, from the Société des relationnistes du Québec for Integrated Communication-Marketing Campaign

Autopsie

The House Explored! exhibition presents scientific aspects of everyday life. It features demonstrations around a kitchen table, in a bath, in a theatre-bed, and from a TV, showing that science can be a blast.

Maison

The iSci Centre becomes the Montréal Science Centre. Two years after its inauguration, temporary exhibitions are added to the permanent ones, and the thematic Robofolies event is created.

Robofolies

Creation of the Montréal Science Centre Foundation. In addition to supporting the development of innovative exhibition projects and educational programs, the Foundation offers an annual sponsorship program that introduces science and technology to nearly 10,000 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

 

Fondation

The iSci Centre opens on May 1, 2000 in the presence of numerous dignitaries, including then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Why "ISci"? Interactive Science.

Visitors are introduced to science through the Matter WorksLife Lab and Info Studio exhibitions, and their interactivity will become the Centre's trademark, revolutionizing museum visits in Quebec.

 

Centre iSci

Work begins on the King-Edward Pier. The architectural objectives were to preserve the majority of the existing structures and the industrial aesthetic, which is featured throughout the building. The building mirrors the original layout of the former sheds in the Port of Montréal.

 

Launch of the film Africa's Elephant Kingdom. Shed 7 (where the MSC was built) undergoes demolition / construction. The IMAX® theatre opens…. To attract the attention of customers, a real elephant takes a stroll through the Old Port before joining the traditional Santa Claus Parade on the streets of Montréal.

IMAX

Happy 32nd Anniversary to the IMAX® TELUS theatre! Really. The theatre opened 12 years before the Science Centre. The first of its kind in Quebec, its box office for educational films is still among the world's top 3.

 

Did you know that IMAX® technology was born in Montréal during Expo 67?

IMAX