The Gardiner Museum is closed temporarily in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Check our homepage for a rotating selection of online resources and digital art experiences that you can enjoy at home. Be sure to sign up for our e-newsletter and follow us on social media for your daily ceramics fix.
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 posting family-friendly art activities inspired by our collection and the endless possibilities of clay. Visit our Family Day page for weekly crafts, colouring pages, and more fun art projects that you can enjoy at home.
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.
Bring your students to the Gardiner Museum for a trip that they’ll be talking about for weeks!
From painted Chinese dragons to Inuit carvings, 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. 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
2. 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
3. Shaman’s Head (II), 2006, Gift of the Museum of Inuit Art G16.13.8
4. 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
5. 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
6. Peter Pincus, Trio of Vessels V, 2017. Gift of Diana Reitberger.
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. Magdolene Dykstra, Polyanthroponemia, 2020, Unfired clay and mixed media
The Gardiner Museum is temporarily closed. Learn More