The Gardiner Museum is open seven days a week. Explore our permanent collection, discover special exhibitions, get hands-on with clay in our studios, dine, shop, and more.
Enter an immersive world created by Montreal-based artist Karine Giboulo, brought to life by over 500 miniature polymer clay figures that tell stories about our most urgent social issues, from the pandemic to the climate crisis. It will delight visitors of all ages!
Registration for our popular March Break camps opens to Gardiner Friends on January 23 and to the general public on January 25. From March 13 - 17, kids and teens can explore the Museum and get creative with clay in our pottery studios!
Experience the Gardiner's world-renowned collection, in person and online. From Chinese porcelain to contemporary Canadian ceramics, discover the people and histories behind the objects.
Everyone can love clay! Become a Gardiner Friend and enjoy the benefits, including unlimited admission, advanced clay class registration, invitations to exhibition previews and special events, discounts on lectures and classes, and more.
At the heart of some of the most important developments of the twentieth century is the opposition between ceramic as a functional form, and ceramic as art. The first approach was expressed through the revival of studio pottery which is well illustrated in the Gardiner Museum’s collection of international ceramics. The movement originated in Britain by Bernard Leach in the 1920s and promoted hand-crafted pots for everyday life as a reaction against industry. At the same time, other artists working under the influence of Modernism, including Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, sought to liberate pottery from the imperative of function, treating the vessel as an art form. The collection also includes works by contemporary artists who use clay as a medium of sculptural expression.
The Gardiner Museum’s collection of international contemporary ceramics was established by Aaron Milrad, and has since been enriched by gifts from Claude and Christine Bissell, and Helen Gardiner, Iris and Jack Lieber, Elizabeth Lipsett, Michael and Mary Mason, Cawthra and Julyan Mulock, Diana Reitberger, and many others.
1. Gertraud Möhwald (1929-2002), Head with a Dim of Hair (detail), 2002, Gif of Alan Mandell, G14.6.1a-b
2. Gertraud Möhwald (1929-2002), Head with a Dim of Hair (detail), 2002, Gif of Alan Mandell, G14.6.1a-b
3. Adrian Saxe (b.1943), D'Nile (detail), C.2004, Gift of Helen Gardiner and Frank Lloyd, G05.8.1a-c
4. Greg Payce (b.1956), Apparently (detail), c.1999, Purchased with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, G04.19.1; Gift of the Artist, G05.13.1. Photographer: Toni Hafkenscheid