culture-and-recreation

name	Culture and Recreation
description	EN: Access Montreal's parks, cultural facilities, programming, public art, and recreational infrastructure through CKAN datasets. FR: Accédez aux parcs, installations culturelles, programmation, art public et infrastructures récréatives de Montréal via les données CKAN.
triggers	["culture","recreation","parks","facilities","sports","arts","murals","patinoires","skating rinks","programming","parcs","installations","programmation","art public"]

Culture and Recreation / Culture et Loisirs

Access Montreal's parks, recreational facilities, cultural programming, public art installations, and seasonal conditions through the CKAN open data portal.

Available Datasets / Ensembles de données disponibles

Dataset	Format	Real-time?	Description
grands-parcs-parcs-d-arrondissements-et-espaces-publics	DataStore SQL	No	Major parks, district parks, and public spaces
installations-recreatives-sportives-et-culturelles	DataStore SQL	No	Sports, recreational, and cultural facility locations
programmation-sports-loisirs-montreal	DataStore SQL	No	Sports and leisure activity programming schedule
murales	DataStore SQL	No	Subsidized public art murals with locations
parcours-riverain	DataStore SQL	No	Riverside walking and cycling trails
patinoires	JSON Feed	Yes	Current skating rink conditions (separate feed, not DataStore)
patinoires-historique	DataStore SQL	No	Historical skating rink conditions data
conditions-ski	JSON Feed	Yes	Ski hill conditions (separate feed, not DataStore)
recipiendaires-du-prix-paul-buissonneau	DataStore SQL	No	Annual cultural excellence award recipients
soutien-artistes-organismes-culturels	DataStore SQL	No	Artist and cultural organization funding records
batiments-certifies-qualite-famille	DataStore SQL	No	Family-certified community buildings

Real-time Condition Feeds / Flux temps réel

Note: Skating rink (patinoires) and ski (conditions-ski) real-time conditions are NOT in DataStore. They are available as separate JSON feeds updated throughout the day. Query these directly via their feed endpoints rather than through standard DataStore SQL queries.

Common SQL Queries / Requêtes SQL courantes

Find all parks in a specific borough

SELECT name, borough, type, address
FROM "grands-parcs-parcs-d-arrondissements-et-espaces-publics"
WHERE borough = 'Plateau-Mont-Royal'
ORDER BY name;

List cultural facilities with type filtering

SELECT name, address, borough, facility_type, phone
FROM "installations-recreatives-sportives-et-culturelles"
WHERE facility_type ILIKE '%cultural%'
  OR facility_type ILIKE '%art%'
ORDER BY borough, name;

Find murals near a location (requires lat/lon)

SELECT title, artist, address, coordinates
FROM "murales"
WHERE ST_DWithin(
  coordinates::geography,
  ST_SetSRID(ST_MakePoint(-73.5673, 45.5017), 4326)::geography,
  500
)
ORDER BY title;

Search programming by activity type

SELECT activity_name, schedule, location, borough
FROM "programmation-sports-loisirs-montreal"
WHERE activity_name ILIKE '%swimming%'
  OR activity_name ILIKE '%natation%'
LIMIT 20;

Common Questions / Questions fréquentes

Question	Query	Notes
Which parks are in my neighbourhood?	grands-parcs-parcs-d-arrondissements-et-espaces-publics + borough filter	Use exact borough name (proper nouns)
What sports classes are available?	programmation-sports-loisirs-montreal	Includes schedules and locations
Where can I find a skating rink?	patinoires (real-time feed)	Check real-time conditions separately
Is there public art nearby?	murales + geospatial query	Include artist and funding year
What cultural facilities exist?	installations-recreatives-sportives-et-culturelles	Filter by facility_type
Which artists received funding?	soutien-artistes-organismes-culturels	Year-based filtering available

Gotchas / Pièges

1. Real-time condition feeds — patinoires and conditions-ski update throughout the day via separate JSON feeds, NOT through DataStore. Standard SQL queries won't capture live updates.

2. Park names are proper nouns — Always match exact capitalization and accents when filtering by park name (e.g., "Parc La Fontaine", not "parc la fontaine").

3. Borough filtering — Borough names are specific and case-sensitive. Use exact values like "Plateau-Mont-Royal", "Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie", "Ville-Marie".

4. Seasonal data — Programming and facility availability vary by season. Filter results by date ranges if querying historical or future schedules.

5. Coordinates format — Some datasets use PostGIS geometry; others use text coordinates. Check schema before performing spatial queries.

6. Funding records — Support datasets (soutien-artistes-organismes-culturels) may have annual publication delays. Current year data may not be available.

Provenance / Provenance

Attribute	Value
Publisher	Ville de Montréal / City of Montreal
Portal	CKAN Open Data Portal
License	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
Update Frequency	Quarterly (most datasets); Daily (real-time feeds)
Contact	Montreal Open Data Team

Related Skills / Compétences connexes

• Permits & Buildings — batiments-certifies-qualite-famille overlaps with family-certified facility queries
• Events & Programming — Complements programmation-sports-loisirs-montreal scheduling
• Geography & Boundaries — Required for borough filtering and spatial queries
• Arts & Heritage — Connects to public art and cultural funding datasets