Abstract

This thesis explores understudied public art histories in the traditionally working-class neighbourhood of Pointe-Saint-Charles in Montreal, Québec, Canada. As a community, Pointe-Saint-Charles has a strong history of grassroots, place-based activism. Deindustrialization, top-down urban renewal, and shifting patterns of gentrification have impacted this neighbourhood in distinct ways, necessitating community-led solutions. Drawing on critical frameworks theorizing the entanglement of public art and processes of urban change, as well as community-authored historical sources specific to Pointe-Saint-Charles, this thesis aims to explore how actors within public art practices, such as artists, funders, and residents, negotiate a sense of place (Massey) within urban change. How can these different perspectives illuminate the sites and stakes surrounding public art in this neighbourhood? By exploring the conditions of commissioning, creation, and reception surrounding four public artworks installed or created over the last 50 years, this study reveals collective, personal, and political narratives of place, urban change and community spirit in a very unique neighbourhood in Canada. Informed by Elaine Speight’s concept of “place-listening,” this thesis proposes new methodologies that weave together the situated knowledge (Haraway) of long-term residents with archival research to resist dominant narratives of place, in favour of situated perspectives in Pointe-Saint-Charles.