Bienvenue à l’Acadie!
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We’re excited to share that our site has recently launched and is continuously evolving. New content is being added regularly, so we appreciate your patience as we continue to build and refine. Please check back often for updates!
Who We Are
A former Roman Catholic Church turned non-profit cultural museum, the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel located in the quaint parish village of Lille sur-St-Jean is an institution dedicated to the preservation and development of Acadian and Québecois culture and history in the St. John Valley in the far northern reaches of Maine. The museum was founded in 1984 following the church’s decommissioning and subsequent ceasing of religious services, and is operated by its parent organization, the Association culturelle et historique du Mont-Carmel.
Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1973, the site has been undergoing extensive restoration and boasts an impressive collection of religious artefacts and vestments, sculptures, folk and decorative art, Acadian and Québecois pine furniture, and works dating as early as the 18th century. The Musée also offers public programming that includes educational lectures, exhibitions, guided tours, and is a venue for performance-based events such as dancing, traditional singing, music and concerts, and theatrical productions.
Joseph Donald Cyr
Founder & Director
Joseph Donald Cyr is the founder and director of the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel. Cyr is an avid cultural historian of French Acadian and Québecois heritage, an Advisory Trustee of Maine Preservation, a lecturer of history and art at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, and has recently retired from teaching history and art at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone.
Cyr has served on the Maine Arts Commission, the Maine Humanities Council, and as a Trustee of Maine Citizens for Historic Preservation and of the Maine League of Historical Societies. He was the coordinator of the National Park Services’s Maine Acadian Culture Project, and has advised the St. John Valley Creative Economy Project. Cyr is currently an active member of the Traditional Arts Committee for the Maine Arts Commission, the Expansion Arts Committee for the Maine Community Foundation, the advisory group for Project Cultivate, and the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Advisory Council.
Cyr earned his Bachelor of Science in History at the University of Maine at Presque Isle in 1969 and went on to receive his Master of Education (M.Ed.) with a concentration in History at the University of Maine at Orono in 1971. In 1974, her further obtained a Bachelor of Arts with concentrations in Art and English from the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
Preserving Our Past, Ensuring Our Future
Our Mission & Values
The Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel centers on preserving, studying, and celebrating the unique history and cultural heritage of the facilities that are its present museum, the artefacts of its permanent collection, and the broader grounds of its former parish. We aim to be a dynamic public forum for the communities of the St. John River Valley and operate as a shared community space fostering learning and connection. As such, we aim to ensure our stewardship of our cultural assets and historic resources are of the highest standards, adhere to the use of technical expertise and specialized knowledge, and promote discourse and dialogue premised on respect by championing equitable and inclusive institutional practices.
The generous donations and contributions of our visitors, members, as well as former and existing public and private partners, are what make our efforts possible. We thank you for being part of a story that continues to welcome exciting stories at every turn.
To accomplish our mission, we believe in . . .
- Ensuring our restoration efforts are innovative and guided by a commitment to historical accuracy and authenticity in reviving the site’s original configuration and design.
- Inspiring an educational and celebratory civic engagement and understanding of the history, cultural practices, and significance of the site by offering public programming that stimulates active learning, open dialogue, and cultural appreciation.
- Developing, preserving, and exhibiting our distinguished permanent collection of Acadian, Québecois, and Indigenous folk, material, and visual culture.
- Promoting a greater awareness, education, and usage of the local French language through reading, writing, and speaking.
- Investing in cultural advancement that aims to spur local economic growth and development, thus serving as a catalyst in promoting community well-being.
- Inspiring others to understand and appreciate the importance of the labors associated with the restoration and preservation profession(s) and the broader art historical discipline.
- Embracing complexity and challenges throughout our work, no matter their breadth or depth.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge the land and water that the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel and the former parish it once served occupy, as well as the ancestral and contemporary peoples indigenous to these places. The grounds of the Musée and its former parish are the ancestral homelands inhabited by the Maliseet (Wolastoqiyik) people for thousands of years.
We recognize that we are on indigenous land. In addition to the Maliseet, the broader place we now call Northeastern Maine is home to the sovereign people of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which include the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki, and Mi’kmaq peoples. We exist on their unceded homelands.
