In accordance with the announcement by the provincial government, the Gardiner Museum has closed temporarily. The health and safety of our visitors, staff, and the wider community remains our top priority. We'll continue to provide you with engaging digital content to keep us connected while the galleries are closed.
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!
On Thursday April 29 at 1 pm, join us for a free online lecture with Professor Alison McQueen, who will discuss the significant contributions of women working at Sèvres in the first century of its history. The presentation will feature works from leading international porcelain collections and bring attention to the often-overlooked roles of women retouching glaze, laying down prints, and burnishing. Register now!
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!
With the Museum closed temporarily, we need your support to continue to offer innovative and engaging exhibitions, programs, and community projects online, as well as plan for the future. Please consider making a donation to help us build community with clay.
Co-presented with Ken Moffatt, The Jack Layton Chair and Melanie Panitch, The Director of The Office of Social Innovation, Ryerson University; PEN Canada
FREE REGISTRATION
Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the student protests at Tiananmen Square, this culmination of the AWW Free School will feature an onstage conversation with journalists and activists reflecting on its impact. The panel will be introduced by Olivia Chow, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson and core member of the Toronto Association of Democracy in China, founded in May 1989 to support the student protest in Tiananmen Square and the movement for democratic reform in China. Joining Chow will be labour activist Winnie Ng alongside journalists Doug Saunders and Jan Wong, who covered the Tiananmen Massacre as a foreign correspondent in China for The Globe and Mail.
About the exhibition
Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most influential artists and human rights activists, as well as one of China’s most formidable critics. Known for smashing conventions—and ceramics—with iconic works like Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, he upends the cultural traditions and materials of his native China.
This highly-anticipated and timely exhibition explores the breaking of boundaries, both physical and symbolic, and considers how the artist’s ceramic works form a basis for his ongoing exploration of urgent social justice themes, including immigration, freedom of speech, and the repression of dissent. Learn more
Presenting Sponsor
Exhibition Partners
PHIL LIND & ELLEN ROLAND
THE ROONEY FAMILY FOUNDATION
Media Partner
Programs Sponsor
ELEANOR & FRANCIS SHEN
AWW Free School Partners
AWW Free School Keynote Partner
Ai Weiwei – Study of Perspective, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, 1995, gelatin silver photograph