The Gardiner is now open from Thursday - Sunday, including free weekend admission! There's plenty of space to reconnect and amazing art to discover in all corners of the Museum. Clay Restaurant is still open Tuesday - Sunday. Reservations fill up fast, so book your table early. Please read our new health and safety policies before you visit.
From sticky to crusty, pliable to powdery, and shaped to shapeless, clay’s ability to transform in real time is prompting a new generation of artists to explore the possibilities of this ancient material. RAW features new work by four artists who are pushing boundaries with unfired clay: Cassils, Magdolene Dykstra, Azza El Siddique, and Linda Swanson. See it now!
We're firing up the kilns again! Join us on Sundays from 1 - 3 pm for drop in clay classes in our pottery studios. We've reduced our class sizes to allow for safe physical distancing, and instituted new health and safety protocols. Registration opens online at 10 am on the morning of the class. We can't wait to see you back in the studios!
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!
As we begin to welcome visitors back to the Gardiner, we need your support to continue offering innovative and engaging exhibitions, programs, and community projects on site and online. Make a donation and help us build community with clay.
Gardiner Friends are invited to join us for a sneak peek of our latest special exhibition, Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary. Enjoy complimentary refreshments between 11 am and 3 pm, and a tour by curator Karine Tsoumis at 1 pm. “Ask Me” docents will be available from 3 pm – 6 pm to answer questions about the exhibition. Remember, as a Gardiner Friend you can bring unlimited guests free of charge!
To RSVP for the tour at 1 pm, email rsvp@gardinermuseum.com.
Not a Gardiner Friend? Click here to learn more about the benefits of joining.
About Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary
Canadian ceramist Janet Macpherson is widely acclaimed for her technically complex use of slip-cast porcelain in the creation of intricate animal forms. Some are curious, hybrid creatures, often diminutive in scale, wrapped, bandaged or masked. Others are full-sized and true to life. In Macpherson’s bestiary, animals stand in for the complexity of human experience. Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary is an unprecedented group of installations where the artist uses her unique visual language to convey a very personal view of Canada. Through four immersive installations that include sound design by Justin Haynes and Janet Macpherson, and video projections by Renée Lear, Macpherson revisits moments in Canadian history and questions commonly-held conceptions about the North, identity, and our relationship to landscape. This exhibition was commissioned to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation.