Radius Child and Youth Services: No Mud, No Lotus
December 7 – 11, 2023
This exhibition features the work of participants from Radius Child and Youth Services and celebrates their journey of healing and empowerment.
Community Arts Space
Find out how we’re building community using the transformational power of clay.
Established in 2016, Community Arts Space (CAS) is the Gardiner’s incubator for arts-based community projects that build community through clay making. Each year, we partner with local community groups to host clay workshops, exhibitions, and community events.
Our current and past community partners include The 519, Akin, Angry Asian Feminist Gang, Asian Community AIDS Services, ArtHeart, Art Starts, Canada Nos Une Multicultural Organization, Connected North, Crazy Dames, FCJ Refugee Centre, Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, Hyperallergic, Invisible Footprints, Madeleine Co., Margin of Eras Gallery, Nia Centre for the Arts, Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre (Niiwin Wendaanimak (Four Winds) Indigenous Health and Wellness Program), Rice Roll Productions, Salon Noir, South Riverdale Community Health Centre, Titiesg Wîcinímintôwak // Bluejays Dancing Together Collective, The Truth & Dare Project, Turtle House Art/Play Centre, University of Waterloo School of Architecture, Unspun Theatre, VIBE Arts, and YYZ Artists Outlet, among others.
Discover some of our currant and past projects and stay tuned for upcoming events!
Lead Sponsor
Hair We Are with Art Starts and VIBE Arts. Community Arts Space 2019. Photo: Henry Chan
Live Choreography: jes sachse and Alice Sheppard. Community Arts Space 2018. Photo: Yuula Benivolski
Forever (Bird-Botanicals) by David Constantino Salazar with Workman Arts. Community Arts Space 2021. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.
The Sin Fronteras Monarch Butterfly Project Exhibition Launch with Akin, Canada Nos Une Multicultural Organization, and the ROM. Community Arts Space 2019. Photo: Henry Chan
Outdoor Mosaic Making with Waterloo Architecture & PARTISANS Architects. Community Arts Space 2017. Photo: Dainesha Nugent-Palache
Fragments and Fictions by Z’otz* Collective. Community Arts Space 2022. Photo: Brittany Carmichael
Community Arts Space Projects
Discover a selection of our current and past Community Arts Space projects.
Mark Making: Narrating Our Histories
August 11 – September 4, 2023
This presentation features works created through a series of workshops led by multidisciplinary artist and mentor, Sharon Norwood, along with five members of VIBE Arts’ Emerging Artists program.
Fragments and Fictions
August 12 – September 5, 2022
Z’otz* Collective presents an interactive community exhibition of new ceramic works alongside objects from Gardiner’s Ancient Americas collection.
Forever (Bird-Botanicals)
August 21 – 31, 2021
Toronto-based sculptor David Constantino Salazar transforms the Exhibition Hall into a venue for collective feeling with a series of over 500 hand-sculpted pieces created during a month-long residency.
Community Arts Space: Community Is Essential
November 2020 – January 2021
When the Museum closed as a result of COVID-19, we reimagined CAS as a series of community activities that connected participants to one another through artistic production despite their physical isolation.
Community Arts Space: What we long for
July – September 2019
Community Arts Space: What we long for showcases four public projects that engage with community healing, survival tools, transformative justice, and how craft creates opportunities for acknowledgment and action.
Community Arts Space: Recent Histories
July – September 2018
Presenting five public projects that examine how cultural knowledge is passed on or performed, and the role of a museum in cultivating so-called lived and living memory.
Community Arts Space: Art Is Change
July – August 2017
Six projects considers how the city’s unique and varied local histories of art and social activism can be re-mapped for the future.
Gardiner Community Arts Space: The Make it Real Project
July – August 2016
Through an open call for proposals, the Gardiner selected five partners to explore four themes—interactivity, performance, community-engaged arts, and city building.