Montreal couple helping artists get more exposure by opening their hearts — and their home

Danielle Lysaught and Paul Hamelin of Montreal operate Projet Casa for artists looking for a gallery to show their work.

A Montreal couple is opening their hearts and their home to create accessibility in a unique way.

“I like to surprise people, to have the programmation that shows different types of work,” says Danielle Lysaught, after she and her husband, Paul Hamelin, began helping artists to take their dreams from drawings to reality.

“A creator in art came to us with a proposal,” Hamelin says, adding “the proposal was to show expositions that were ready but that lost their place because of the shutdown.”

According to the co-owners and co-founders, what started as a way of finding artists temporary placements during the pandemic has since become the gallery and refuge known as Projet Casa.

After 39 exhibitions, 143 artists and roughly 15,000 visitors, they’re now planning to expand.

“We see on the back on Marie-Anne street there will be the two new entrances. Our private home entrance that will go up here,” says Lysaught.

The top storey of the gallery and heritage site off Jeanne-Mance Park also serves as the couple’s home.

“The experience that we live sharing with the artists, we would like that the visitors, people that come here to have and live the same experience,” says Hamelin.

Artists like Michael A. Robinson, whose work has previously been displayed on-site, says the personal touch is one of the best parts.

“The way they’ve chosen to nurture art is really compelling,” Robinson explained.

“My recent work has a lot to do with the spaces where they’re shown. This type of work is called site-responsive and so when I came here I was immediately drawn to the space,” he adds.

As a professor of sculpture and drawing at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Robinson says Projet Casa fills a major gap in the industry.

“It’s a real essential ... bridge between people who are from communities that have difficulties, sort of penetrating the Montreal art scene,” he explains.

For those facing barriers to entry and visiting artists, Projet Casa offers another creative solution – a one-bedroom apartment with an art studio downstairs.

It, too, will soon expand, offering those preparing works more room to stay and create.