Following Toronto and Vancouver, Montreal libraries will now be lending out a wide variety of instruments free of charge – a first in Quebec.

Thanks to over $100,00 in financial support from Sun Life Financial and donations of approximately 100 musical instruments to the City of Montreal, the Montreal Public Library will now be giving its users (accomplished musicians and beginners alike) access to guitars, violins, ukuleles, portable keyboards, drums and xylophones.

To borrow an instrument, you simply need to present your valid adult library card (age 14 and over). The loan period is for three weeks and the user can renew it up to three times provided there is no hold. Montrealers can borrow instruments from the following eight library branches: Du Boisé, Georges-Vanier, La Petite-Patrie, Maison culturelle et communautaire, Plateau-Mont-Royal, Saint-Léonard, Saul-Bellow and Verdun.

The Montreal Public Library will now be giving its users access to guitars, violins, ukuleles, portable keyboards, drums and xylophones

“We understand the importance of music and the arts in society, which is why we want everyone to have the chance to express their creative side,” explained Robert Dumas, president of Sun Life Financial. “We support a number of cultural initiatives in Quebec, and we’re very happy to be launching, in Montreal, this musical instrument lending library program, which has been highly successful elsewhere in Canada.” This initiative, part of Sun Life’s Making the Arts More Accessible program, was first launched in April 2016 at the Toronto Public Library’s Parkdale branch, and in June at the Vancouver Public Library. Since then, there have been 990 instrument loans in Toronto and 503 in Vancouver, with a waiting list of 500 people.

To increase its collection of instruments, which started at 120 initially, the Montreal libraries are inviting people to participate in a musical instrument donation drive between now and December 24. People can leave their new or gently used instruments at any of the participating libraries. “The musical instrument donation drive could expand the Montreal libraries’ collection, allowing more libraries to participate,” added Robert Dumas.

This program will run for two years, after which it will be evaluated by Sun Life.