Two pavilions. One museum. Celebrating where we come from—and discovering what the world has to offer.
The Peanut Project | The 4C — Creative, Cultural & Commercial Campus
When people think about the Peanut Project, they naturally think about the return of the Montreal Expos.
And rightly so.
But from the beginning, our ambition has extended beyond restoring a Major League Baseball franchise. We envision a new stadium surrounded by a Creative, Cultural and Commercial Campus—the 4C—that could become a year-round destination for Montrealers, Quebecers, Canadians and visitors from around the world.
At the heart of that vision is a museum.
Not simply a baseball museum. Not another monument to nostalgia. And certainly not a place that exists merely to celebrate famous people.
We want to create an institution that educates, entertains, inspires and challenges its visitors.
A place that celebrates the people who built our communities, created extraordinary works, pushed the boundaries of human achievement and sometimes changed the world.
And a place that reminds us that, while we have much to celebrate about our own history, there is an entire world beyond our borders worth discovering.
That’s why we’re proposing one museum with two complementary pavilions: Je me souviens and La Belle Province.
One looks inward, toward our history and identity.
The other looks outward, toward the world.
Together, they tell a bigger story about who we are, where we come from, and what we can become.
Pavilion I: Je me souviens
Remembering the people who built Montreal, Quebec and Canada
A predominantly permanent collection celebrating our builders, creators and athletes.
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Je me souviens—I remember—is Quebec’s famous motto.
It’s also a powerful starting point for a museum.
Because remembering shouldn’t mean simply looking backward with nostalgia.
It should mean understanding how we got here, who helped shape our society, what they accomplished, where they fell short and what future generations can learn from their experiences.
The Je me souviens pavilion would celebrate the extraordinary people of Montreal, Quebec and Canada, including those whose contributions are internationally recognized and those whose stories have been largely forgotten.
We envision three broad pillars.
The Builders
The entrepreneurs, scientists, inventors, educators, civic leaders, philanthropists and community organizers who helped create the institutions, industries and opportunities we sometimes take for granted.
People such as John Molson, Jeanne Mance, Armand Frappier and countless others who built businesses, hospitals, universities, transportation networks and communities.
But builders aren’t limited to those who became wealthy, powerful or famous.
They include immigrants who established neighbourhood businesses, workers who constructed our infrastructure, Indigenous communities whose histories long predate the modern city, and individuals whose contributions made life better for others.
Some built companies.
Others built communities.
What unites them isn’t the size of their fortunes. It’s the lasting value of their contributions.
The Creators
Montreal, Quebec and Canada have produced extraordinary artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers, comedians, designers and cultural innovators.
Imagine exhibitions celebrating Oscar Peterson, Leonard Cohen, Mordecai Richler, Céline Dion, Oliver Jones, Gino Vannelli and generations of creative pioneers.
But rather than simply displaying photographs and memorabilia, we’d want visitors to understand the creative process.
What inspired these individuals?
What obstacles did they overcome?
How did their surroundings influence their work?
And how did their work influence the world?
The goal isn’t merely to admire their achievements.
It’s to inspire the next generation to create something of its own.
The Athletes
Naturally, sports would play an important role.
The Montreal Canadiens. The Expos. The Alouettes. The Olympics. The athletes, teams and moments that brought communities together.
Jackie Robinson’s historic season with the Montreal Royals. Maurice Richard’s extraordinary legacy. Gary Carter, Vladimir Guerrero and the baseball heroes who made the Expos part of our collective identity.
But also Olympians, Paralympians, pioneers in women’s sports and athletes from disciplines that rarely receive the attention they deserve.
Sport is about more than winning championships.
It’s about discipline, perseverance, teamwork, opportunity and the ability to overcome adversity.
Those lessons transcend the playing field.
Remembering the whole story
There’s another essential principle.
Je me souviens should not be a hall of unquestioning hero worship.
History is complicated. Great accomplishments sometimes coexist with troubling beliefs, personal failures or institutional injustices.
Consider Carrie Derick, the pioneering scientist whose name appears near one of the stadium sites we’ve been exploring.
She advanced women’s education and scientific participation while also supporting eugenic ideas that deserve serious historical scrutiny.
What should a museum do with such a contradiction?
Tell the whole story.
Celebrate genuine contributions without erasing uncomfortable truths.
Explain historical context without using it to excuse harm.
Allow visitors to learn, question and draw informed conclusions.
A museum should neither sanitize history nor turn every historical figure into a contemporary political argument.
Its responsibility is to pursue accuracy, context and intellectual honesty.
That requires independent curatorial leadership, historians, educators and community participation.
The museum should belong to the public—not to the personal preferences of its founder.
Permanent, but never static
Je me souviens would be the museum’s enduring foundation.
Its principal galleries and collections would remain accessible year after year, giving schools, families and visitors a dependable place to explore our shared history.
But permanent shouldn’t mean frozen.
New stories could be added. Exhibits could evolve. Digital experiences could be refreshed. Previously overlooked individuals and communities could receive overdue recognition.
A child visiting in 2032 should be able to return in 2042 and discover something new.
The past doesn’t change, but our understanding of it can deepen.
Pavilion II: La Belle Province
Bringing the world’s greatest stories to Montreal
A rotating program of temporary international exhibitions celebrating global builders, creators and athletes.
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If Je me souviens celebrates what Montreal, Quebec and Canada have contributed to the world, La Belle Province would celebrate what the world can bring to us.
The name is intentional.
La Belle Province is an affectionate expression associated with Quebec.
But here, we’d give it an additional meaning.
Quebec is beautiful not only because of what it has created, but because of its capacity to welcome ideas, people, cultures and experiences from beyond its borders.
This pavilion would feature temporary, rotating international exhibitions built around compelling themes, individuals, movements and historical moments.
Through partnerships with museums, cultural institutions, collectors, archives, artists, sports organizations and rights holders worldwide, we’d seek to bring remarkable artifacts, stories and experiences to Montreal.
Not every Montrealer can travel to Cairo, Tokyo, Florence, London, Lagos or Mexico City.
But we can aspire to bring a little of those places to Montreal.
Global Builders
Imagine exhibitions exploring the entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, architects and civic leaders who transformed their societies.
An exhibition on the engineering of ancient civilizations.
Another on the Renaissance and the extraordinary concentration of artistic and scientific talent that emerged from Florence.
A temporary collection exploring the industrial revolution, the birth of modern computing, or the people and ideas behind Silicon Valley.
Or a program examining how cities around the world tackled challenges involving housing, transportation, education, public health and urban development.
These exhibitions wouldn’t exist simply to celebrate wealth or power.
They would explore ingenuity, ambition, achievement, consequences and the lessons that remain relevant today.
Global Creators
Imagine a temporary exhibition dedicated to Japanese animation, featuring original artwork, production techniques and the evolution of anime.
Or an exploration of Hollywood’s golden age.
Or the history of hip-hop, from its origins in New York to its global cultural influence.
Perhaps a showcase of Italian design, Indian cinema, African music, French fashion or the world’s great literary movements.
Some exhibitions could focus on an individual.
Others could explore an entire creative tradition.
The underlying question would remain the same:
What can we learn from people who saw the world differently—and created something that changed it?
Global Athletes
Sport offers an almost limitless universe of international stories.
Imagine a temporary exhibition on Pelé, Diego Maradona and the global rise of soccer.
Or the history of Formula 1, with iconic cars, engineering innovations and stories of legendary drivers.
Or the evolution of basketball from James Naismith’s invention to its emergence as a global phenomenon.
An exhibition on Muhammad Ali could explore not only boxing, but celebrity, civil rights, media and cultural influence.
Another could celebrate the Olympic Games through artifacts, films, memorabilia and the personal stories of athletes from different generations and countries.
And naturally, international baseball would have a place too—from Japan and the Caribbean to Latin America and beyond.
The possibilities are enormous.
A reason to come back
Unlike Je me souviens, La Belle Province would be designed around change.
An exhibition might run for three months, six months or a year, depending on its scope, cost and partnerships.
One season might celebrate the history of animation.
The next could explore ancient Egypt.
Another could feature the world’s greatest sporting rivalries.
A future exhibition could examine artificial intelligence and the evolution of human creativity.
The rotating format would give residents a reason to return while offering tourists a different experience depending on when they visit.
It could also create opportunities for schools, universities, corporate partners, cultural institutions and visiting creators to participate in lectures, workshops, screenings, performances and special events.
Je me souviens would give the museum its roots. La Belle Province would give it a continually changing horizon.
Two Pavilions, One Philosophy
The two pavilions would be distinct, but they would share a common purpose.
| Je me souviens | La Belle Province | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic focus | Montreal, Quebec and Canada | The rest of the world |
| Collection | Predominantly permanent | Temporary and rotating |
| Subjects | Builders, creators, athletes | Builders, creators, athletes |
| Primary purpose | Preserve, celebrate and examine our heritage | Discover, experience and learn from global achievements |
| Local appeal | Identity, education and intergenerational learning | New experiences and repeat visits |
| Tourist appeal | Discover what makes this place special | Experience international exhibitions while visiting Montreal |
Both would celebrate achievement without confusing success with virtue.
Both would explore failures and contradictions alongside accomplishments.
Both would make room for familiar icons and lesser-known individuals.
And both would be designed to inspire curiosity rather than prescribe conclusions.
Above all, neither pavilion should become an exercise in provincialism or cultural superiority.
We can be proud of where we come from without believing that everything worth celebrating originated here.
In fact, the more we understand the world, the better we can understand ourselves.
More Than Display Cases: A Living Museum
Museums today can do much more than place artifacts behind glass.
We envision a combination of authentic objects, archival materials, documentary storytelling, interactive installations, immersive environments, live programming and educational experiences.
A visitor might examine a historical artifact, watch a short documentary about its significance, participate in an interactive demonstration and then attend a discussion with a historian, artist, entrepreneur or athlete.
WatchMojo’s experience in storytelling and the proposed AceMojo production capabilities could potentially contribute to the development of original audiovisual experiences, subject to appropriate curatorial independence and partnerships.
The 4C campus could also connect the museum to other activities.
A student attending a workshop at the proposed Academy & Study of Entrepreneurship might discover the story of a Quebec inventor.
A family visiting for an Expos game could arrive early to explore an exhibition on Montreal’s sporting heritage.
A tourist visiting for an international exhibition could discover a local musician, scientist or entrepreneur they had never heard of.
And a Montrealer who has never attended a baseball game might come to the district specifically for the museum.
That’s the point of the 4C.
The baseball franchise would be the catalyst.
The stadium would be an anchor.
But the surrounding cultural and commercial campus should have a purpose and identity of its own, throughout the year.
A Museum That Belongs to Everyone
We are still at the conceptual stage.
The museum’s physical design, operating structure, collection strategy, funding, partnerships and governance would all require further development.
Permanent collections demand thoughtful acquisition and preservation policies. International exhibitions involve lending agreements, insurance, transportation, conservation and significant logistical planning.
We would need qualified museum professionals, historians, curators, educators and institutional partners to determine how to turn this vision into a responsible, sustainable institution.
And importantly, the museum should never become a personal vanity project or a monument to the people financing it.
Its mission should be larger than any founder, sponsor, political administration or ownership group.
I want it to celebrate builders—not simply people who accumulated wealth, power or fame, but those whose work created something of lasting significance.
I also want it to challenge our assumptions about what constitutes achievement.
An entrepreneur who creates thousands of jobs may deserve recognition.
So might a teacher who transforms the lives of hundreds of students.
An internationally celebrated musician may inspire millions.
So might an unknown community organizer who helped preserve a neighbourhood.
A champion athlete may embody excellence.
So might someone who fought to make sport accessible to people previously excluded from it.
There is room for all these stories.
Remember Where You Come From. Discover Where You Can Go.
Ultimately, the two pavilions express a simple philosophy.
Je me souviens: Remember where you come from.
Understand the people, ideas, institutions, achievements and contradictions that shaped Montreal, Quebec and Canada.
La Belle Province: Discover what the world has to offer.
Welcome extraordinary stories, objects, ideas and experiences from beyond our borders—and let them broaden our imagination.
One pavilion would be rooted in memory.
The other would be animated by discovery.
One would preserve an enduring record of our past.
The other would continuously introduce new perspectives.
And together, they could create something much more meaningful than another tourist attraction.
A place where local residents develop a deeper appreciation of their own history.
Where tourists discover the people and achievements that make Montreal, Quebec and Canada distinctive.
Where students find role models.
Where families encounter cultures and ideas they might never otherwise experience.
And where the next generation of builders, creators and athletes finds inspiration to make its own contribution.
The Peanut Project began with a desire to restore a baseball team.
But if we succeed, we have an opportunity to build something that outlasts any season, any championship, any ownership group—and perhaps even the people who imagined it.
Je me souviens celebrates what we’ve inherited.
La Belle Province celebrates what we have yet to discover.
Two pavilions. One museum. A world of possibilities.
Help Us Build It
As with every element of the Peanut Project, I’d love to hear from the community.
Who belongs in Je me souviens? Which Montreal, Quebec and Canadian builders, creators and athletes deserve to be remembered—especially those whose contributions have been overlooked?
And what would you most like to see in La Belle Province? Which international artifacts, exhibitions, historical periods, artists, innovators or sporting legends would make you want to visit?
Most importantly, what would make this a museum you’d return to—and one you’d be proud to show visitors from around the world?
Because the best way to build a museum about people is to begin by listening to them.
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