New partnership between Concordia’s Art Volt and La Centrale galerie Powerhouse brings residencies and internships to fine arts alumni

A new partnership between Concordia’s Art Volt and La Centrale galerie Powerhouse will support recent fine arts alumni through curatorial and cultural mediation opportunities.

The collaboration comes at a special time, with both Concordia and La Centrale marking 50-year anniversaries. The partnership will involve a Curatorial Residency, resulting in the production of a window exhibition inspired by La Centrale’s archives, and a Cultural Mediation Internship to develop and coordinate activities connected to La Centrale’s milestone celebrations in May 2025.

“We’re encouraging a younger community to get into the arts, to take up space. We’re showing them how the inside of an organization works,” says Rosemarie Laporte, La Centrale’s general co-director and head of Communications and Public Engagement.

The artist-run centre is dedicated to the dissemination and development of multidisciplinary feminist practices, while supporting artists and practices often marginalized by dominant cultural institutions.

Meet the three Concordia graduates now working with La Centrale to help develop activities and programming:

Mila Figuet, BFA 23
Cultural mediation intern

Mila Figuet is a performance artist and cultural worker who strives to raise awareness of gender-based violence in her work. The intermedia grad is also a self-taught archivist.  

La Centrale will support Figuet as she combines these skills, providing a platform to share stories, experiences and perspectives that tend to be obscured or erased from conventional histories.

“This represents a unique opportunity to unite my artistic practice with my work as a cultural worker,” says Figuet.

“I look forward to exploring institutional change while enhancing my understanding of management, curating and engagement.”

Ally Rosilio, BFA 23, and Olivia Vidmar, BFA 18, MA 24
Curatorial residents

Curatorial duo, Ally Rosilio and Olivia Vidmar, have spent the summer in the archives of Art Volt, Concordia’s Special Collections and at Artexte, conducting research that will inform a window exhibition conveying La Centrale’s mandate to passersby.

The art history graduates are grateful for this opportunity for professional development that will allow them to build on their curatorial collaboration, shared research interests and creative practices.

“Our curatorial project reflects on La Centrale’s 50th anniversary by exploring how its archives and public-facing vitrine can reveal the gallery’s role as a ‘home-base’ for radicalized practice,” says Rosilio. “We are interested in materially engaging with its diverse sites and communities throughout the city, through embodied and feminist spatial methodologies.”

Rosilio and Vidmar became friends while working busy weekend shifts at a café in Montreal’s southwest. They discovered many shared interests — related to art, architecture and histories of the built environment — and eventually began co-curating rotating exhibitions on a dedicated wall within their workspace.

“We have been working to create opportunities for emerging artists here for almost four years now,” says Vidmar. “This curatorial residency at La Centrale is an exciting next step in our collaborative work — a significant opportunity for us to think about how to exhibit research and archives in a visually compelling way.”

Vidmar has long been interested in the histories of artist-run centres and spatial activism. “La Centrale is an important part of this history in Montreal,” she notes. “I am very grateful for this experience at this stage in my career as an arts worker."

Located on Montreal’s St. Laurent Boulevard, the vitrine will be key to introducing the community to La Centrale. A vernissage is slated for December and the exhibition will be on display through to January 2025.

“We’re honouring the path that led La Centrale to be the centre it is today — our whole foundation was made possible by the community,” says Laporte.

“It is fitting therefore, that the Concordia community be involved in the planning of our 50th-anniversary programming initiatives. Our team, in turn, will offer valuable guidance and assistance in the development and management of their various projects.”