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.
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