Bienvenue à l’Acadie!
We thank you for visiting our website!
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 village of Lille-sur-St. Jean is an institution dedicated to the preservation and development of Acadian and Québecois culture and history in the Saint John Valley in the far northern reaches of Maine.
The museum was founded in 1984 following the decommissioning and subsequent ceasing of religious services of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel, 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.
Open Hours & Seasons
We are open daily 12pm – 4pm from late spring (mid-May) through early autumn (mid-September). This is the period when we are most accessible to visitors.
The Musée is closed December through April, though we are open by appointment year-round.
Operating times are subject to change depending on the season. Check in regularly for updates. Admission is free and/or by donation.
Memory, Identity, Legacy
Visual Histories of the Saint John Valley
As we enter into the final phases of our restoration – a milestone long-awaited since our efforts began in 1984, the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel is pleased to share a renewed campaign in its collections approach.
Drawing primarily from its permanent collection, the Musée is bringing viewers into new ways of seeing how the visual culture(s) of the Saint John Valley’s Francophone peoples engaged with the sociocultural and economic changes affecting life in the borderland in the late-19th through mid-20th centuries.
The Musée interrogates how the creators of the artefacts in its collection responded to the worlds in which they were entwined amidst their efforts to preserve their cultural identity.
Events at the Musée
Danielle & Thomas Segen
From sea shanties and ballads to operatic melodies. Returning to the Musée are the Segens, graduates of the UCLA School of Music whose performances are a must-see!
Telling Stories with Music: Concert Featuring Bertrand Laurence
Join us November 30th as we welcome Bertrand Laurence, an international performer of folk and acoustic blues music who has been making waves across Maine since moving to Houlton!
The Pelletier Lovejoy Jazz Ensemble
Bring your friends and family as we welcome back the women-led music group bringing a genre of music scarcely entertained in Northern Maine.
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In The News
Explore an array of publications featuring the Musée from over the years!
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 Wolastoqiyik people for thousands of years.
We recognize that we are on indigenous land. In addition to the Wolastoqiyik, 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.
