New visual identity · La Centrale celebrates 50 years!
A bursting core– a downpour – roots digging into the earth – an electric spark – open arms – the exchange of words – warmth – iridescence – imperfect shapes.
La Centrale’s 2024-2025 programming year is a very special one –we’re celebrating fifty years, and commemorating the involvement of those who have supported the organization throughout the years. To celebrate our golden anniversary, we’ve got a new look! La Centrale presents to you its new visual identity, created with the joint efforts of our Revamp committee composed of the co-directors team and our members Annik St-Arnaud, Marcella França and Marie-Laure S. Louis and the graphic designer Isadora-Ayesha Lima, a fan of fun and dynamic shapes. Together, we thought about what La Centrale symbolizes for us, putting into images the fluidity, openness and exploration that characterizes the centre.
Here we are, fifty years later, equipped with a team and a membership in constant evolution and metamorphosis. In 1973, when the founders of Powerhouse (our very first name) created a space that finally welcomed women artists, on the second floor of an apartment on Greene Avenue in Montréal, Canada’s first feminist artist-run centre was born. A pioneering idea, which despite its radical character still ostracized racialized communities, language, sexuality and gender diversity. Furthermore, how do we preserve the nuances of a non-hierarchical structure, when decades of professionalization have entangled us into institutionalization’s mechanisms?
A work in constant progress, as feminisms have evolved so has La Centrale. While the impetus for each innovation is unique, they incite us to adapt, innovate, and bring new understandings to what it means to be a feminist artist-run centre. Since 2016 La Centrale has dedicated itself to the dissemination and development of multidisciplinary feminist practices, seeking to diversify our programming and reach a multiplicity of communities, and by mindfully introducing new artistic formats.
This 2024-2025 programming year takes a look back at the past with an eye to the future. July starts with a residency with Super Boat People, a collective whose mission is to inclusively mobilize Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese people of origin and alliance in Quebec to commit to reclaiming their histories, reconnecting with their culture and communities. In partnership with Art Volt, we will welcome a curatorial residency which activates La Centrale’s archives. This celebration allows us to give space for community engagement, optimism, joy and knowledge sharing. The Prix Powerhouse exhibition, taking place in the fall, recognizes two Montréal artists who have contributed to the city’s artistic community. In order to nurture our socially-engaged roots, La Centrale will transform into a space for dialogue, collaboration, and collective imagination during the symposium How do we protect a radical idea?
Thus, La Centrale galerie Powerhouse marks its fiftieth anniversary with a dynamic new image and vibrant, varied programming. We hope you will join us as we pay tribute to our past, look forward to the future, while continuing to nurture space for openness, dialogue, and artistic and feminist exploration. Wishing you a great summer— we look forward to celebrating with you this year!
— La Centrale’s team