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.
Ron Thom was one of Canada’s greatest architects, with enduring testaments to his genius, such as Massey College and Trent University, still among the country’s most admired buildings. But Ron Thom, like Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects of his generation, believed in creating not just a building for a client, but a whole world—from the landscaping to the interiors, and the furniture to the ceramics. This exhibition explores Ron Thom’s brilliant architecture in the context of his total aesthetic. Ron Thom and the Allied Arts is a travelling exhibition organized by the West Vancouver Museum in collaboration with Trent University and Massey College.
“Few architects have helped shape Canadian architecture as poetically as Ron Thom. From his early days as a west coast artist to his crowning achievements designing Massey College and Trent University, Ron Thom devoted himself to a profoundly holistic approach, wherein the fields of architecture, ceramics, visual arts, furniture and landscape formed a continuum. He was a fan of the Mingei folk craft movement, wherein potters and other artisans opting out of the industrial age found a higher beauty in the hand-made. Of this architect’s long and illustrious career, Ron Thom and the Allied Arts celebrates the most creatively fertile period, 1947 – 1972, with a focus on five west coast houses, Massey College, Trent University, and the ceramic and other arts that inform them. On display will be a selection of Ron Thom’s original paintings, prototypes for furniture and fittings, architectural drawings and sketches, archival and architectural photography, the original hand-rendered 1960 Massey College presentation boards, and the ceramics he commissioned as an integral component of it all. ”
– Adele Weder, Curator
Exhibition Programs & Events
Tuesday February 11, 7 – 8 pm Ron Thom and His Legacy Moderator: Adele Weder Panelists: Shawn Micallef, Larry Richards, and Brigitte Shim
Thursday February 27, 12 – 1:30 pm Lunch + Learn: The Changing Face of Modernism in Toronto Speaker: Shawn Micallef
Tuesday March 25, 6:30 – 8 pm Canadian Modern: The Allied Arts in Canada Speaker: Dr. Sandra Alfoldy
Friday March 28, 6 – 10 pm Mod Mad Party: A Bash Inspired by the Era of Mad Men
Thursday April 10, 6:30 – 8 pm Digitizing Contemporary Ceramics Speaker: Ezra Shales
Wednesday April 23, 6:30 – 8 pm Moxy, Monumentality and Ceramic Murals Speaker: Susan Surette