About Nathalie Bondil

Art historian Nathalie Bondil has been the Director General and Chief Curator of the MMFA since 2007. Her original multidisciplinary exhibitions have been successfully exported internationally to 35 cities in ten years. Under her leadership, attendance has doubled (1.3 million visitors in 2017, making it the 8th most visited art museum in North America and 49th in the world). The museum’s size has increased by 30% with the opening of two buildings: The Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion for Quebec and Canadian Art (2011), and The Michal and Renata Horstein Pavilion for Peace (2016). An urban agora, the MMFA features a professional concert hall presenting 150 concerts annually and a cinema. The Stéphan Crétier and Stéphany Maillery Wing for World Cultures and Togetherness opened in 2019.

The author of a Manifesto for a Humanist Museum, Nathalie Bondil has tripled the educational spaces with the opening of the Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy (2016), one of the largest in a North American art museum. A pioneer in community-based programming, the MMFA collaborates with over 450 partners (schools, universities, associations, hospitals and medical research institutes). It launched the Art & Health Committee chaired by Quebec’s Chief Scientist and several pilot projects such as issuing the very first medical prescriptions for art in 2018.

Vice-Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, Nathalie Bondil was awarded two honorary doctorates (McGill University and Université de Montréal) and appointed Member of the Order of Canada, Officer of the Ordre national du Québec, and Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic.