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!
Drawing from the Gardiner’s own collection and artist Ai Weiwei’s practice in traditional Chinese craft, Dr. Maris Boyd Gillette explores how Jingdezhen porcelain has inspired ceramists to create, copy, and counterfeit its glories.
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.
Bring your students to the Gardiner Museum for a trip that they’ll be talking about for weeks!
From dragons to Mexican dogs, a trip to the Gardiner Museum combines world history and discovery with a hands-on clay project. The Museum’s award-winning curriculum-based programs are accessible to students from kindergarten through to university.
All themes can be matched to fit any of these curricula: Visual Arts, Social Studies, Indigenous Studies, Animals, Environment, Language, and more. Just ask us!
Full day program Grade 3 – 8: 2-hour morning session, 30-minute lunch break, 1.5-hour clay workshop Grade 9+: 1.5-hour morning session, 1-hour lunch break, 1.5-hour clay workshop
Half day program (No lunch space available) JK – Grade 1: 15-minute tour followed by 1.25-hour clay workshop Grade 2+: 30-minutes tour followed by 1.5-hour clay workshop
1. 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
2. Shaman’s Head (II), 2006, Gift of the Museum of Inuit Art G16.13.8
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
4. Rabbit Tureen (detail), England, London, Chelsea, c.1755-1756, Purchased with a gift from Dr. Walter S. Bloom and Carol Bloom Koffler in memory of their mother, Adele S. Bloom, a collector and connoisseur of English porcelain; with a grant from the Government of Canada, Ministry of Communications under the terms of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act and with the assistance of the Tecolote Foundation
5. Peter Pincus, Trio of Vessels V, 2017. Gift of Diana Reitberger.
6. Dish with Five-Clawed Dragon China, Jingdezhen, Qing dynasty, Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722) Hard-paste porcelain with underglaze blue The Robert Murray Bell and Ann Walker Bell Collection of Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, G99.10.9
7. Dish with scene from the story of Icarus Italy, Urbino and Gubbio, c. 1530 Painted by Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo (c. 1500 – after 1542); lustred in the workshop of Maestro Giorgio Andreoli (c. 1465/70-c. 1553) Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica), with metallic lustre Inscription on reverse: fran: Avello R : pt: / Dedalo co’l figlical’ T Aeve / à nolo. / fabula y (fran: Avello R: painted this:/ The fable of Daedalus with his son in the air) Gift of George and Helen Gardiner, G83.1.362
8. The Greeting Harlequin (detail), Germany, Meissen, c.1740, Gift of George and Helen Gardiner, G83.1.908
9. Demo pieces from the Studio
10. Ai Weiwei. Photo courtesy Ai Weiwei Studio