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.
Lobby Display
“Having grown up surrounded by women who expertly sewed, crocheted, knitted, and quilted, I’ve sought my own way to participate in a textile tradition. I cut, mark, and pierce rigid clay as though it were cloth. Traditional quilting patterns like the ‘log cabin’—which allude to all that is light and dark in life, anchored by hearth and home—are purposefully integrated into my work. Through these patterns I can explore the entrenched symbolism as it pertains to my life: my work is the light, my anxieties are the dark, family is my anchor.”
Having grown up in a society and culture that often assigns shame and sloth to those suffering from mental health, Clarke’s recent work is an invitation to an open and honest discussion. After graduating from college, Clarke experienced the mental health issues that plague many young people. While initiatives like Open Minds, Healthy Minds, launched in June 2011, have begun to address mental health, it is only through constant discourse and action that society can continue to change.
About the Artist
Rhoni Clarke (b.1989) is from Orillia, Ontario. Originally planning a career in mathematics, she was drawn to clay after just one ceramic arts course. Rhoni graduated from Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee (BA 2011) and continued her practice at Sheridan College graduating in 2014. Rhoni is currently working for Scott Barnim Pottery in Dundas, Ontario, and living in Burlington.