Gardiner Museum

Gardiner Museum The Gardiner Museum unites people of all ages and backgrounds through the love of clay & ceramics.
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The Gardiner Museum was founded in 1984 by George and Helen Gardiner to house their collection of ceramics. Today, visitors can explore the permanent collection, including pottery representing 47 cultures from the modern day geographical areas of the American Southwest, Mexico, and Central and South America; a world-renowned collection of porcelain from Europe, China, and Japan; and contemporary c

eramics by Canadian and international artists. The Gardiner also posts original content online that can be enjoyed from home. This includes artist and curator videos, object features, virtual field trips, family art activities, and more. Follow us on social media and visit our website often to get your daily clay fix!

How did Blue Willow ware become part of India's palace architecture?Join Heeryoon Shin, Assistant Professor of Art Histo...
09/02/2026

How did Blue Willow ware become part of India's palace architecture?

Join Heeryoon Shin, Assistant Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at Bard College, for an online lecture examining how the familiar Blue Willow pattern found on Staffordshire transferware was transformed into architectural ornamentation in 19th-century India.

Through a study of two historic palace sites, this online talk explores cross-cultural exchange, material histories, and the global circulation of ceramic design.

Tickets are PWYW and FREE for students!

📅 September 17, 2026
🕛 12:00 PM-1:00 PM ET
💻 Online via Zoom

🎟️ Register here: https://ow.ly/3xFI50ZIjpF

Did you know these works haven't been publicly exhibited in over 50 years?Highways of Harlan House explores a little-kno...
09/01/2026

Did you know these works haven't been publicly exhibited in over 50 years?

Highways of Harlan House explores a little-known series of wall sculptures by celebrated Canadian potter Harlan House. The works were made in the early 1970s in the context of a growing counterculture that included second-wave feminism and anti-war protest.

House's critiques of the human impact on local ecologies and its intensive exploitation, including the tar sands in Alberta, bring the importance and resilience of the land to the forefront of our minds today.

📍 Catch the exhibition before it closes on September 13.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/Z4TN50ZHlYf

[1] Harlan House, New Alberta Coat of Arms, 1970, Glazed stoneware, Artist’s Collection. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
[2] Harlan House, Alberta Landscape, 1973, Glazed stoneware, canvas, paint, Collection of the Art Gallery of Burlington, Donated by Douglas and Joyce Meredith, 1998, 1998.203.0.1. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
[3] Harlan House, Three Sisters, 1973, Glazed stoneware, canvas, Artist’s Collection. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
[4] Harlan House, Re-U Turn, 1972, Glazed stoneware, Collection of Yves Savoie and Steve Young. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

What can a ceramic vessel tell us about Canada's past?Discover utilitarian and decorative wares produced by early settle...
08/31/2026

What can a ceramic vessel tell us about Canada's past?

Discover utilitarian and decorative wares produced by early settler potters during Collection in Focus: 19th Century Canadian Ceramics.

This special program includes an object handling session, giving participants a rare opportunity to closely examine works from the Gardiner's collection.

📅 September 9
🕕 6:00-7:00 PM

🎟️ Only a few spots left! Register here: https://ow.ly/KqCU50ZHlWe

08/28/2026

When we shared a recent video with Chief Curator & Deputy Director Dr. Sequoia Miller, there was one piece you couldn't stop asking about.

This stunning pink bowl by Lucy Rie caught your attention and we thought it was only fair to give it a closer look. See it on view in our new Modern & Contemporary Gallery. 💗

Dame Lucie Rie, DBE (English, born in Austria, 1902 - 1995), Striped bowl, 1978, Glazed porcelain with incised lines, Gift of Aaron Milrad in memory of Bella and Joseph Milrad, G99.6.59

08/26/2026

Summer isn't over just yet. ✨

Before the season comes to a close, take time to explore an exhibition, discover a new artist, get your hands in clay, or simply wander through the Museum.

However you choose to spend it, there's still time for one more summer outing to the Gardiner.

Plan your visit now: https://ow.ly/JXie50ZFGAa

What began as an admiration for the imperfect beauty of early Japanese porcelain grew into a collection of more than 300...
08/24/2026

What began as an admiration for the imperfect beauty of early Japanese porcelain grew into a collection of more than 300 objects spanning Japan, China, and Europe. The Macdonald Collection explores how ceramics travelled across cultures, carrying ideas, influences, and stories with them.

Now on view throughout the Museum's stairwell gallery, this exhibition invites visitors to discover Japanese porcelain and Japanese-inspired ceramics through themes of nature, leisure, and global trade.

📍 Included with admission.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/mZTF50ZBWvP

📷: Toni Hafkenscheid

08/20/2026

On view for the first time in over 50 years. ✨

Highways of Harlan House explores a virtually unknown series of wall sculptures by celebrated Canadian potter Harlan House. Created in the early 1970s, the works use the motif of the highway to reflect on humanity's relationship with the land and the environmental impacts of development.

Made from clay and glaze materials sourced around Calgary, these sculptures transform everyday landscapes into powerful reflections on ecology, industry, and place.

📍 On view until September 13 at the Gardiner Museum.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/69Pe50ZBWqX

Fall Exhibition Announcement 📣 Black Artists' Networks Dialogue - BAND, the Gardiner Museum, and the Museum of the Afric...
08/17/2026

Fall Exhibition Announcement 📣

Black Artists' Networks Dialogue - BAND, the Gardiner Museum, and the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) are thrilled to announce After the Island, a landmark curatorial partnership exploring contemporary ceramic practices rooted in Caribbean histories, memory, and cultural transformation.

Presented across two exhibitions and two cities—Toronto and San Francisco—this collaboration brings together artists whose work examines migration, ornament, labour, ancestry, and the enduring impact of Caribbean cultural traditions across generations and geographies.

At MoAD, new and recent work by Sharon Norwood, Jacqueline Bishop, and PJ Anderson will be on view, while the Gardiner Museum will present work by Caribbean Canadian artists Sharon Norwood, PJ Anderson, Eddy Firmin, and Manuel Mathieu.

Throughout both presentations, vessels, decorative forms, sculptural installations, and ceramic surfaces become sites where histories are preserved, challenged, reimagined, and carried forward. Together, the exhibitions demonstrate how artists working with clay continue to create new forms of relation between past and present, homeland and diaspora, history and imagination.

📍 After the Island: Ornament and Ceramic Practice in the Jamaican Diaspora
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), San Francisco
September 30, 2026 – May 30, 2027

📍 After the Island: Caribbean Canadian Ceramics
Gardiner Museum, Toronto
October 9, 2026 – April 25, 2027

More details to come.

Image: PJ Anderson, Claw Forms #4, 2020, Terra sigillata

That's a wrap on the 2026 International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF). ✨ This year's fair brought some of the most compelling ...
08/16/2026

That's a wrap on the 2026 International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF). ✨

This year's fair brought some of the most compelling artists working in clay to Toronto to explore how ceramics shelter, ground, and connect us.

Thank you to all the artists, galleries, speakers, sponsors, and visitors for making ICAF 2026 such a success. We're already looking forward to ICAF 2028!

Artists

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Galleries







Supporting Sponsors
Appleyard Rebanks Family
Eddy Reitberger

Government Support


Symposium Sponsor
Raphael Yu

Artist Sponsor
The Peter and Melanie Munk Charitable Foundation

Contributing Sponsors
Monica Gupta & John Cadiz
The Danish Arts Foundation
The Danish Ministry of Culture and The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Hon. Nicole Eaton
The Murray Frum Foundation
Zhou Family Foundation

Hospitality Partners



Thanks To


With thanks to our 2026 Honorary Committee
James Appleyard, Robert Davies, The Hon. Nicole Eaton, Yvonne Fleck, Jennifer Kerbel Poirier, Nattiya King-Stewart, Patricia Koval, Nancy Lockhart, David Mirvish, Kent Monkman, Melanie Munk

📸: Toni Hafkenscheid

08/15/2026

✨ Final weekend to experience ICAF 2026 ✨

Don't miss your chance to explore the International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) before it closes tomorrow.

Featuring contemporary ceramic works by artists from across Canada and beyond, ICAF brings together innovative practices, unexpected perspectives, and the limitless possibilities of clay.

Make plans to visit this weekend.

🎟️ Grab your tickets through the link in bio.

Address

111 Queens Park
Toronto, ON
M5S2C7

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 9pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 10am - 5pm

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