Abstract
Dans l’Griff-In Griffintown: Three personal French Canadian narratives on their homes, public spaces, and buildings in the former industrial neighbourhood of Griffintown.

G. Scott MacLeod
	This Master’s thesis focuses on a two-generation French Canadian family, who through a series of interviews and a selection of their personal photographs from the 1940s to the 2000s, describe their Griffintown community experience. Griffintown is a former industrial inner-city neighbourhood reflecting Montreal’s industrial past, just south of the city’s downtown. With only a handful of the original civic, residential and industrial sites remaining, the once thriving community of predominantly working class Anglo-Protestants, Irish Catholics and French Canadians has all but disappeared. Currently Griffintown is claimed and viewed by some as a once predominantly Irish neighbourhood; little has been done to recognize that other cultures and communities occupied Griffintown. The current gentrification of the neighbourhood has brought a condo boom, bringing in a new generation of young professionals and retired couples but the former community endures in memory, via recent, books, films and community art projects. Using an arts-informed research methodology for my interviews and a photo elicitation process, I triggered the Merciers’ memories and stories about their former homes and community life, enabling them to recount their French Canadian experience in Griffintown. Using a short documentary film and educational website, this study articulates their personal narratives and memories from family homes and community living to reveal the importance of public spaces, buildings and communities. This thesis and documentary also highlight their views on the current condo projects changing the face of Griffintown. This arts-informed template and framework are designed for similar studies while the documentary and website are created for educational use in the field of Art Education.