Biography

Nominated by École normale supérieure de Lyon for the title of Doctor Honoris causa during the Jacques Cartier talks.

Having studied literature, pedagogy and management, Michel Côté has been working for many years in the field of culture. During his career, he has been Director of Programs, at the Minister of Culture in Québec, Director of exhibitions at the Musée de la Civilisation in Québec, Director of the Museum of Lyon and project manager of the Musée des Confluences.

He worked as a Director of the Museum of Natural History in Lyon for more than ten years, where he redefined its cultural and scientific project. He has also developed and clarified the concept to launch the project of the Musée des Confluences, a thematic and multidisciplinary museum of sciences and societies. While skillfully managing this audacious project costing over 200 million euros, he has organized dozens of exhibitions, cultural activities and written publications while remaining unconditionally attached to his culture of origin on French soil by organizing events in which researchers and creators from Quebec have participated.

He returned to Quebec in 2010, working as the General Directorate of the Musée de la Civilisation. Michel Côté updated the cultural project of the institution where both current and future exhibitions illustrate his concern to attract a diverse public to the Museum, helping them become aware of the importance of their own culture and of endangered and unsung heritages.

Michel Côté was behind the exhibitions such as Rome, from its origins to the capital of Italy, Samurai. Not forgetting, works of art from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller collection, Arts of Nigeria in the French Private Collections, E TŪAke – Māori standing. He prepared, with several prestigious museums in Paris, a huge exhibition on Paris, Ville Lumière in June 2013.

During his career, Michel Côté has been a member of the Executive Board of the International Council of Museums, President of ICOM Canada and the Société des Musées of Quebec. He has set up numerous international knowledge dissemination projects. In 2012, he received the insignia of Officer of the Order of Arts and Literature for the French Republic, for his exemplary commitment to strengthening cultural relations between Quebec and France.

Greatly involved in the museum community, Michel Côté was President of the Société des Musées in Quebec, President of ICOM Canada and has served on the International Council of Museums in Paris as well as on various Boards of Directors. He is an active member of various scientific committees (Musée de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Cité internationale de l’Immigration) and is known as, on the international stage, an expert in museology.