After more than a year of repairs following a fire that broke out in May 2025, the Centre Barberivain in Sainte-Barbe was ceremoniously re-opened to the public on August 24.
The flames had affected the building’s main entrance, while damage from the smoke resulted in extensive, time-consuming clean-up and decontamination work.
Sunday mass has already been resumed, and recreational activities such as weekly yoga, line dancing, tai chi, and exercise classes will start up again this September. The municipality has confirmed that performances and events will also gradually return to the community centre and church.
The centre’s reopening timed perfectly with the unveiling of a work of art that was recently installed on the building. Titled Demain en un tour de main, the artwork celebrates Sainte-Barbe’s diverse sectors by incorporating the municipality’s visual identity colours and the iconic shape of the church’s ceiling arches.
The piece was created by the Plouffe family of Longueuil, including Guillaume Boudrias-Plouffe and Émilie Levert and their children Emeline, Léo, and Zéphir. “We wanted to bring together the three facets of Sainte-Barbe in a single work: the fields, the lakefront, and the heart of the village centre,” explained Boudrias-Plouffe.
According to the municipality, the artwork was commissioned through a provincial policy that integrates art into public buildings and their environments. The Ministry of Culture and Communications manages the program. The work was planned before the fire, but its installation has taken on special significance now that the building has been reopened.
The artwork is also part of the recently completed project to expand and modernize the town hall, which received funding from the province’s municipal infrastructure improvement and construction program. (SR)