Moncton Cathedral Will Open High-Tech Digital Museum In Time For Acadian World Congress
MONCTON – Residents and visitors of Moncton will soon be able to learn more about the cultural and historical significance of the towering Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption Cathedral on St. George Street through interactive panels and a 360-degree film projection.
“Churches are known for history and spirituality and these things, but what we bring inside is an element of technology that we’re not really used to seeing in a church,” said André Bourgeois, executive director of MR21 (Monument of Recognition in the 21st Century), the group which operates the museum.
The digital interpretation centre will open on August 6 with only some of its planned installations, four days before the Acadian World Congress, which will take place on P.E.I. and southeast New Brunswick this year. It plans to open as a year-round tourist attraction site.
“We only have a fraction of the planned installation available now. But there are plans for several others – all very high-tech things. All the wiring has been put in for future installations, but we really wanted to open before the Congrès Mondial Acadien this summer, so we’ll do whatever we can before,” he said.
Funding for the project comes from private sources, Bourgeois said. But the organization is hoping funds could also come from public sources in the future.
The installations are produced by Grande-Digue-based company Améri Ka Productions. In the future, it will include chip- and sensor-activated elements.
“It appears kind of like magic on the walls and there are some soundscapes that are activated – testimonials by artisans and parishioners in the past, things like that. There’s going to be virtual reality helmets that bring you to the hard-to-reach places of the cathedral, like the steeple, the crypt and all these places,” Bourgeois said. “There’s going to be an interactive model of the cathedral that shows how it was built and that tells stories about how it was built and all that.”
The digital museum is one of several projects launched by community organizations to save the building, considered a monument for the resilience of Acadians after the mass deportations of 1755 and symbolic of the presence of urban Acadians. The church was also where the well-known Acadian tradition of Tintamarre started.
“We’re going to have more information panels that talk about these important historical episodes because the church really was the centre of the Acadian community of Moncton for many decades,” Bourgeois said.
The cathedral, which fits approximately 1,300 people, was built in 1939 at the order of the first archbishop of Moncton, Arthur Melanson, whose tomb lies within a chapel in the cathedral. A 25-minute 360-degree film about his life will be projected in that chapel as the centrepiece for this season. There are rotating seats that were made to look like the keys on Melanson’s typewriter.
The remains of bishop Henri-D Cormier, the first priest of the parish of Moncton, and Norbert Robichaud, the second archbishop of Moncton and first chancellor of Université de Moncton, also lay within the cathedral.
The church faced demolition in 2014, but community organization La Fondation de la cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption de Moncton raised more than $6 million to restore the base of the church. The cathedral now also hosts the offices of MR21, Societe Nationale De L’Acadie, Conseil provincial des sociétés culturelles and the Francophone Youth Federation of New Brunswick, among others.
“We needed projects to keep the building busy so it wouldn’t fall into disrepair again. One of the projects was to have a museum inside so that people can also appreciate the outstanding heritage and cultural and artistic value of the building itself,” Bourgeois explained.
The projects aren’t directly connected, but “collectively, we’ve all managed to save this building,” he said.
The symbolisms, images and statues in the building represent something of significance to the Acadian people. Carvings on the stone pillars, made by local artisans of the day, represent local industries like fishing, agriculture and transportation. The altar includes images that represent Francophone post-secondary institutions of the day. And there are reminders of visits from Mother Theresa in 1985 and Pope John Paul II in 1984.
Interactive screens explain the artistic and historical context of the 10 pairs of stained glass windows in the nave of the church, which represent female characters from the old testament. The artworks in the church were made by French and Acadian artists.
The museum will be opened to the public after mass on Sundays. It will be closed on Mondays and open all other days from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Schedules may change in the winter. The screens and displays can be turned off or moved away when religious services commence.
“We’re trying to have a very non-intrusive presence inside this building out of respect for the parishioners,” Bourgeois said.
Admission is $12 for adults, with discounted prices for seniors, families and youth, and free for kids three years old and under.