We're delighted to announce that the Gardiner Museum will reopen to the public with two days of free admission on Saturday July 11 and Sunday July 12. From July 13 onward, we'll resume our regular hours and admission rates. It seems we've been gone so long—we miss you and can't wait to welcome you back! Please read about our new health and safety protocols before your visit.
During our temporary closure, we're posting exhibitions and selections from our collection online. Discover Inuit ceramics, Chinese and Japanese porcelain, pottery from the Ancient Americas, and more!
We're excited to present a new live series hosted by Chief Curator Sequoia Miller in which an artist will share three of their artworks and speak about them in connection to a larger theme. On Thursday July 9 at 1 pm, Azza El Siddique, a Sudanese-Canadian interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, painting, photography, and film, will discuss three of her artworks in the context of the theme “Absence”. Registration is free!
Every object in our permanent collection can be accessed through our eMuseum portal. Learn about individual collecting areas, like Italian Maiolica or Modern and Contemporary Ceramics, or search the full collection by keyword. You'll be amazed by what you discover!
We’re closed until further notice, but we’re planning for the day when we can again welcome visitors. We encourage you to make a gift to the Gardiner. This will be vital for when we reopen, and is the optimistic message we all need.
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