The Gardiner Museum is excited to announce a transformational $9 million donation from the Radlett Foundation in honour of the late William B.G. Humphries, who established the Foundation, reflecting his lifelong commitment to the collection and presentation of ceramics. This gift is the largest in the Museum’s history by an individual other than its founders, George and Helen Gardiner.

This generous philanthropic contribution will be the catalyst for a full-scale reimagining of the Gardiner Museum’s ground floor, led by Montgomery Sisam Architects and Andrew Jones Design, and guided by the principles of connectivity, access, and Indigeneity. This includes the construction of a new fully equipped makerspace, a community engagement centre, and an Indigenous gallery space. At the heart of the transformation is the goal of integrating the warmth of clay into the fabric of the visitor experience as a means to enhance the sense of belonging intended by the Gardiner’s community-first approach to Museum programs and curation.

The Gardiner Museum would like to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of the Indigenous Advisory Circle in guiding this project: Andre Morriseau, Duke Redbird, Kent Monkman, Mary Anne Barkhouse, and Tekaronhiáhkhwa / Santee Smith.

The capital costs of the project are estimated to be $14 million, and construction is expected to begin in summer 2024. The Gardiner is in the early stages of a fundraising campaign that will invite its donors, partners, volunteers, and the broader community to be a part of this vision and transformation.

The Gardiner Museum has been presented with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring our physical space in line with our mission to build community with clay. The Radlett Foundation’s transformational gift will ensure the Gardiner Museum’s future as a vibrant community hub that welcomes all people and ignites a sense of creativity and wonder. – Gabrielle Peacock, Executive Director & CEO

Connectivity

Design plans for the first-floor transformation are being guided by the goal of  literally and metaphorically establishing and encouraging connectivity between people enjoying the Museum, between cultures through shared ceramic traditions, and between spaces and their functionality. The reimagined visitor experience will impart one’s individual connection to clay, as well as the ties that bind us through this universal medium.

Access

An expanded makerspace will foreground hands-on activity, revealing clay’s accessibility and tactile nature, while activating the Museum as a site of creativity and innovation. A new community learning centre will be an open hub for looking, thinking, and reflecting, with comfortable furniture and resources on ceramics at your fingertips. It will also serve as a venue for Museum programs, talks, classes, and public events.

Indigeneity 

The Indigenous gallery space is being designed in consultation with the Indigenous Advisory Circle and will sit at the heart of the ground floor permanent collection galleries, which are being reimagined to centre Canadian and Indigenous stories and highlight connections between cultures and ceramic traditions across time and geographies. The Museum is seeking a Curator of Indigenous Ceramics who will lead the development and installation of the Indigenous gallery space. The Gardiner will also engage in consultation with its Indigenous partners and build new relationships with Indigenous cultural organizations throughout this process.

The prioritizing of Indigenous ceramics reflects Mr. Humphries’s legacy of support for Indigenous communities, particularly in the final two decades of his life, through arts, education, and healthcare initiatives in Ontario. This included the founding and funding of the Ignite the Spirit of Education Foundation, now part of The Radlett Foundation.

“This project offers the Gardiner Museum a singular opportunity to transform both its physical space and the ways it engages with diverse audiences. The addition of a gallery of Indigenous ceramics at the center of the Museum embodies the Gardiner’s commitment to working with communities to reflect and explore Indigenous cultural practices of the past and present.”  – Kent Monkman, Member of the Gardiner Board and Indigenous Advisory Circle

The Project Team

Indigenous Advisory Circle

Mary Anne Barkhouse
Mary Anne Barkhouse was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, but has strong ties to both coasts as her mother is from the Nimpkish band, Kwakiutl First Nation of Alert Bay, BC and her father is of German and British descent from Nova Scotia. She is a descendant of a long line of internationally recognized Northwest Coast artists that includes Ellen Neel, Mungo Martin and Charlie James. She graduated with Honours from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and has exhibited widely across Canada and the United States. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Barkhouse’s work can be found in numerous private and public collections.

Kent Monkman
Kent Monkman is an interdisciplinary Cree visual artist. A member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba), he lives and works in Dish With One Spoon Territory (Toronto, Canada). Known for his thought-provoking interventions into Western European and American art history, Monkman explores themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience—the complexities of historic and contemporary Indigenous experiences—across painting, film/video, performance, and installation. Monkman’s painting and installation works have been exhibited at institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal; The National Gallery of Canada; The Royal Ontario Museum; and Gardiner Museum.

Andre Morriseau
A member of the Fort William First Nation (Thunder Bay) where he maintains a home, Andre Morriseau is based in Toronto. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Morriseau has served on numerous boards of directors including the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, Native American Journalist’s Association (NAJA), the Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre and is currently serving as a Director on the Anishnawbe Health Foundation board.

Duke Redbird
Dr. Duke Redbird is an Elder from the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, on the shores of Lake Huron. A celebrated Indigenous Visionary as well as an established public intellectual, poet, broadcaster, and filmmaker, Dr. Redbird is also a highly sought after keynote speaker. He is an Elder and Advisor to various public and private organizations, and his online presence brings his breadth of cultural knowledge and artistic practice to the benefit of a global audience. A multidisciplinary artist, Dr. Redbird brings an Indigenous lens to modern art and design, and has aided in the emergence of a vibrant Indigenous presence on the contemporary cultural scene.

Tekaronhiáhkhwa / Santee Smith
Santee Smith is an internationally recognized leader in the performing arts, a multidisciplinary artist and producer from the Kahnyen’kehàka (Mohawk) Nation, Turtle Clan from Ohswé:ken (Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario). She is one of Canada’s leading dance artists, and holds McMaster University degrees in Physical Education and Psychology along with a Master of Arts in Dance from York University. Her life and works have been the topic of TV series and films aired on CBC, NFB, APTN and PBS (US), and most recently on CBC Arts – The Move II. Smith is the 19th Chancellor of McMaster University.

Design and Construction

Montgomery Sisam Architects
Founded in 1978, Montgomery Sisam Architects is a mid-sized architectural firm based in Toronto, Ontario. It comprises a group of architects, designers and technicians with diverse backgrounds, and a shared social consciousness. Montgomery Sisam’s process is grounded in a sense of responsibility to the public, driven by dialogue and research, and focused on social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Montgomery Sisam has developed a reputation for design leadership that is supported by over 80 provincial, national and international design awards.
montgomerysisam.com

Andrew Jones Design
Andrew Jones is a Canadian designer who has worked for more than 25 years designing furniture and architectural interiors. Jones holds an MA in Furniture Design from the Royal College of Art in London and a degree in Architecture from University of Toronto. His designs for the public realm include the iconic pink umbrellas at Toronto’s award-winning Sugar Beach. In 2016, he designed the exhibition True Nordic: How Scandinavia Influenced Design in Canada, organized by the Gardiner Museum, and in 2019, he designed the Gardiner Museum’s Joan Courtois Gallery, which spans three floors of the Museum’s soaring stairwell.
andrewjonesdesign.com

Chris Cornelius
Chris Cornelius is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of New Mexico. He is the founding principal of studio:indigenous, a design practice serving Indigenous clients. He served as a cultural consultant and design collaborator with Antoine Predock on the Indian Community School of Milwaukee (ICS). ICS won the AIA Design Excellence award from the Committee on Architecture for Education. Cornelius holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Cornelius was the Spring 2021, Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale University. He has previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Virginia.

Cornelius is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Including the inaugural Miller Prize from Exhibit Columbus, a 2018 and 2022 Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Award, and an Artist residency from the National Museum of the American Indian. He has been exhibited widely including the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Studio:indigenous received a 2021 Architect’s Newspaper Best Of Practice Award – Best Small Practice, Midwest. Cornelius lives and works on the ancestral lands of the Pueblo, Tiwa and Piro people.
studioindigenous

Boszko & Verity Inc.
Founded by Orest Boszko and Michael Verity, B&V is a unique construction company that bridges a gap in the world of design and architecture. Both Boszko and Verity trained as architects, but soon found that their passion for building rivaled their interest in design, thus leading them to create B&V in 2001. Since then, B&V has earned the respect of clients and designers alike, through a comprehensive and collaborative approach that brings creative vision to built reality.
boszkoandverity.com

Land Acknowledgement

The Gardiner Museum is situated on the ancestral and traditional territories of many nations, including the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, and is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. It is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. As a museum that celebrates the material of the earth, the Gardiner Museum is committed to honouring Indigenous peoples’ cultural and spiritual connections to the land. Reconciliation is central to our work as a museum, and we strive to celebrate Indigenous knowledge and creativity through our collections, exhibitions, and programming.