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.
Coming in 2021 as part of the ArtworxTO Year of Public Art
Toronto—The Gardiner Museum is commissioning a new permanent public artwork to honour the ongoing Indigenous presence on Turtle Island. As part of the ArtworxTO Year of Public Art, the Museum has released a Call for Expressions of Interest shaped by an Advisory Group chaired by Gardiner Board Member Kent Monkman and comprised of local Indigenous community members. The application process is open to Indigenous artists (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis).
As a ceramics museum, the Gardiner celebrates the material of the earth itself, making it a fitting location for a physical embodiment of Indigenous presence on the land. On the traditional territory of the Anishnaabe, the Haudenosaunee, the Petun, the Wendat, and the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the project may also honour the connections among the many Indigenous communities that this land has supported from time immemorial.
In keeping with the Gardiner’s mission of building community with clay, the commissioned artwork will be clay-based or involve a ceramic component. It will be installed on the Gardiner’s outdoor plaza in the high traffic area of Queen’s Park, guaranteeing free public access.
Following the open call and a long-list review, the Advisory Group will ask three artists to submit full proposals. The finalists will be announced in December 2020, and a selection will be made by February. The artwork will be installed and unveiled in fall 2021.
This new public commission will join the two public sculptures currently installed on the plaza—Untitled (head) by Jun Kaneko and Cracked Wheat by Shary Boyle—as well as a third sculpture by Toronto-based artist An Te Liu, coming in spring 2021.
The project is funded by a grant from ArtworxTO Year of Public Art, as well as a financial contribution from the Gardiner.
Read the full application
THE ADVISORY GROUP
Andre Morriseau, Communications Manager, Ontario Native Women’s Association Kerry Swanson, Managing Director, Indigenous Screen Office Catherine Tammaro, Chair of the Indigenous Arts Committee; Board of Directors, Toronto Arts Council Mary Anne Barkhouse, Artist Jason Ryle, Independent Arts Consultant Kent Monkman, Artist Duke Redbird, Elder, Saugeen First Nation Sequoia Miller, Chief Curator, Gardiner Museum
ABOUT THE GARDINER MUSEUM
The Gardiner Museum brings together people of all ages and backgrounds through the shared values of creativity, wonder, and community that clay and ceramic traditions inspire.
The Gardiner Museum’s collection of ceramics comprises approximately 4,000 objects, and focuses on specific areas which have been collected in depth. These include a world-renowned collection of European porcelain, with particular strengths in Meissen, Vienna, and Hausmaler decorated porcelain, as well as a comprehensive collection of figures inspired by the commedia dell’arte. It holds the preeminent collection of Italian Renaissance maiolica in Canada, and a superb collection of English tin-glazed pottery. The Gardiner preserves highly significant collections of ceramics from the Ancient Americas, Chinese blue and white porcelain, Japanese porcelain, and contemporary Canadian ceramics. It also houses a research library and archives, clay studios, award-winning Shop, and a restaurant.
The Gardiner Museum is among the few museums in the world focused on ceramics, and is one of the world’s most notable specialty museums. For more information, please visit: gardinermuseum.com.
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Media Contact: Rachel Weiner Senior Manager, Marketing Gardiner Museum 416.408.5062 rachelw@gardinermuseum.com