Gardiner Museum Names Sequoia Miller as Chief Curator
Miller to bring combination of academic, curatorial, and artistic experience to the Gardiner
TORONTO—The Gardiner Museum is pleased to announce the appointment of Sequoia Miller to the role of Chief Curator. Miller worked as a full-time studio potter before re-entering academia as a doctoral candidate in the History of Art at Yale. He is expected to receive his PhD in May.
In 2015, Miller curated the landmark exhibition The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art at the Yale University Art Gallery, bringing ceramic artists like Peter Voulkos, Lucie Rie, and Toshiko Takaezu into dialogue with painters and sculptors in other media including Willem de Kooning, Ed Ruscha, and Mark Rothko.
“We are delighted to welcome Sequoia to the Gardiner. As both a potter and a scholar, he brings a rare and exciting combination of academic, curatorial, and artistic experience to the Museum,” says Kelvin Browne, Executive Director and CEO of the Gardiner Museum.
“I am very excited to join the team at the Gardiner,” says Miller. “The museum does excellent work and is transforming into a dynamic platform for expanding our appreciation of how ceramics, broadly conceived, impacts all of our lives. I am eager to build on this momentum and contribute even more to the booming cultural life of Toronto.”
Miller will begin his tenure at the Gardiner in April. He joins the Museum in the midst of the popular exhibition YOKO ONO: THE RIVERBED, which has been driving visitors to the Gardiner to make their mark on Ono’s interactive installation.
Visit gardinermuseum.com for more information.
ABOUT SEQUOIA MILLER
Sequoia Miller is a historian, curator, and studio potter. He received a BA in Russian & Art History from Brandeis and an MA from the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture in New York City. Miller is anticipated to complete his doctorate in the History of Art at Yale in May 2018. His thesis analyzes the connections between ceramics and conceptual art practices on the East and West Coasts of the United States in the 1960s and ‘70s. Miller curated The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art at the Yale University Art Gallery, and authored the accompanying award-winning catalogue. His research also includes 16th and 17th-century German stoneware, English salt-glazed stoneware, and Queen Mary’s monumental delftware.
Before re-entering academia, Miller was a full-time studio potter for over 10 years. Based in the Pacific Northwest, he made one-of-a-kind functional pots for daily use in domestic environments. Miller exhibited widely and led workshops at craft schools, universities, and art centers.
ABOUT THE GARDINER MUSEUM
The Gardiner Museum celebrates the art of ceramics and engages local and international audiences by promoting understanding of the long history of people crafting in clay. The Museum stewards a highly important collection, connecting visitors to the fundamental role of ceramics in many cultures throughout history, and offers special temporary displays, many highlighting the relevancy of ceramics to contemporary life.
The permanent collection comprises approximately 4,000 objects, and focuses on specific areas which have been collected in depth. These include the most important collection of European porcelain in Canada, with particular strengths in Meissen, Vienna, and Hausmaler decorated porcelain, as well as a comprehensive collection of figures inspired by the commedia dell’arte. The Gardiner holds the best collection of Italian Renaissance maiolica in Canada, and a superb collection of English tin-glazed pottery. It preserves highly significant collections of ceramics from the Ancient Americas, Chinese blue and white porcelain, Japanese porcelain, and contemporary Canadian ceramics. The Gardiner is among the few museums in the world focused on ceramics, and is one of the most important specialty museums internationally. For more information, please visit: livetest.gardinermuseum.com.
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Media Contact:
Rachel Weiner
Senior Manager, Marketing
Gardiner Museum
416.408.5062
[email protected]