The Gardiner is thrilled to announce the launch of CLAY, an original in-house restaurant offering seasonal menus of fresh, local fare in collaboration with The Food Dudes.
Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most influential artists and human rights activists, and one of China’s most formidable critics. Ai Weiwei: Unbroken features a selection of the artist's most iconic ceramics, and marks the international debut of new work. Opens February 28!
Get creative as a family with clay activities on February 17 and 18, including a fun mosaic-making workshop led by a local artist. Admission for visitors 18 and under is free everyday!
The Gardiner Museum is among the few museums in the world focused on ceramics, and is one of the most important specialty museums internationally. It houses approximately 4,000 objects, including European porcelain, ceramics from the Ancient Americas, Chinese porcelain, Japanese porcelain, and contemporary ceramics. Search the collection online!
Everyone can love clay! Become a Friend at one of the world’s great specialty museums and enjoy the benefits, including unlimited admission, invitations to exhibition previews and special events, discounts on lectures and clay classes, and more.
We have an exciting new school program focused on narrative storytelling. Your students will learn about the community of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut in the 1960s and 70s when a cultural revolution was taking place. Long renowned for their stone and bone carvings, the Inuit peoples of Nunavut began working with a unique art form—ceramic low-relief and figurative sculptures. Today, after a century of displacement, pottery has helped revitalize the Inuit culture and way of life, creating a new artistic language based on imagery, symbolism, and narration. Students will explore the Gardiner’s collection of Rankin Inlet Inuit ceramics, and learn to tell their own stories in clay.
Students will have a discussion in the galleries, followed by a hands-on project in the studio.
Students will have an opportunity to learn about about the community of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut in the 1960s and 70s through activities, scavenger hunts and audio-visual presentations. In the afternoon students will participate in a hands-on project.
Program Details
* Optional $3 kiln firing fee. Firing takes 10 to 14 business days. Please add a $5 processing fee per group. ** Registration required, please fill out the form by clicking “Book a Visit” button below.
Book a Visit
1. Shaman’s Head (II), 2006, Gift of the Museum of Inuit Art G16.13.8
2. Seated Drummer, Tala-Tonalá style Mexico, Jalisco 300 B.C. - A.D. 200 Earthenware with white on red slip paint Gift of George and Helen Gardiner, G83.1.56
3. The Monkey Orchestra Germany, Meissen, c. 1753–75 Hard-paste porcelain with overglaze enamels, gilding Modelled by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706–1775) and Peter Reinicke (1711–1768) Mark: Crossed swords in underglaze blue Gift of George and Helen Gardiner, G83.1.675