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.
Women, Art & Social Change tells the inspirational story of a group of women in the Deep South who achieved economic independence through making and selling pottery, and by establishing Newcomb Pottery, one of the most iconic arts and crafts brands of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Set against a backdrop of social change and women’s rights, the Smithsonian exhibition features the largest, most comprehensive collection of Newcomb Pottery to tour North America in three decades, with more than 125 objects of the iconic pottery on display, along with lesser known textiles, metalwork, jewellery, bookbinding and historical artifacts.
Women, Art, & Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise is organized by the Newcomb Art Gallery of Tulane University and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
Exhibition Programs & Events
Wednesday February 11, 6:30 to 8 pm The Next 36 Debate Moderator: Claudia Hepburn, Executive Director and Co-Founder, The Next 36
Wednesday March 11, 6:30 to 8 pm Justice for Women & Girls with Disabilities Speaker: Shantha Rau Barriga, Director of Disability Rights, Human Rights Watch
Thursday April 16, 6:30 – 8 pm The Arts & Crafts of Newcomb Pottery Speaker: Martin Eidelberg, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Rutgers University
Acknowledgments
The Gardiner Museum is grateful to Exhibition Supporters VERITY, Susan Crocker, Laura Dinner, Senator Nicole Eaton, Lorna Marsden, Lynda Palazzi, Lynda Reeves, Senator Nancy Ruth, Karen Sheriff, and Deborah White. These women brought this exhibition to Toronto and continue the story of the Newcomb Pottery Enterprise through their own careers.
Exhibition Partners include CAMH, Far & Wide Collective, House & Home, Human Rights Watch, The Linden School, The Next 36, and The Women’s Canadian Club of Toronto. Farrow & Ball is the Official Paint Sponsor, and The Globe and Mail is the 2015 Media Partner.
Representing 45 years of achievement in decorative arts from 1895 to 1940, the exhibit is supported by grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works, which were matched by supporters of Newcomb Art Gallery.
About the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES)
SITES has been sharing the wealth of Smithsonian collections and research programs with millions of people outside Washington, D.C., for nearly 60 years. SITES connects Americans to their shared cultural heritage through a wide range of exhibitions about art, science and history, which are shown wherever people live, work and play. Exhibition descriptions and tour schedules are available at sites.si.edu.