The Gardiner Museum has selected Tekaronhiáhkhwa / Santee Smith as the recipient of a permanent public artwork commission honouring the ongoing Indigenous presence on Turtle Island, part of ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021–2022.

The Gardiner Museum is excited to announce that admission will be free all summer when our doors reopen to the public on July 21. The Gardiner will also continue to offer free outdoor programming, including hands-on clay workshops and family activities on the Linda Frum and Howard Sokolowski Plaza.

This summer, the Gardiner Museum is breaking down barriers and moving beyond traditional museum spaces to increase access and meet our communities where they feel safe in light of the pandemic.

Still looking for the perfect Mother’s Day gift? We’ve got you covered! Here are 10 gift ideas that are as special as mom. Bonus: They’re all made in Canada by women artisans.

An update from Chief Curator Sequoia Miller on the Gardiner’s ongoing anti-racism, anti-oppression, and equity work.

This year in celebration of International Women’s Day, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favourite Canadian contemporary women ceramic artists to follow on Instagram. It’s a great reminder that much of the most exciting talent in the field is right in our own backyard.

In July of 2020, students in a “Poetry and Pottery” seminar held virtually at the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Centre in New York City wrote original poems based on the objects in our online exhibition Women and Ceramics. Curator Karine Tsoumis selected a few of her favourite compositions to share on our blog.

When we closed our doors for the first time in March 2020 as a result of COVID-19 , the Gardiner Shop was in the midst of a retail exhibition by German-born abstract artist Katja van den Enden. Last month, Van den Enden returned to the Shop with a new series of work inspired by the pandemic. In a recent interview with the artist, she offered insight into her process, her relationship with clay, and what she’s working on next.

In March 2020, the Gardiner acquired 52 objects of African village pottery from the Harmsen Collection. The Collection, which dates to the early 1960s, is a snapshot of traditional modes of production that have changed considerably since it was formed, particularly with the introduction of plastics. It also brings greater diversity and perspective to the Gardiner’s collection of modern and contemporary ceramics, in which Black artists and artists of colour are underrepresented.

Last year the Gardiner acquired a blue-and-white pharmacy jar from Puebla, Mexico dated to the first half of the 18th century. It was made using the same techniques as Italian maiolica, French faience, and Dutch delftware. The history of this object encompasses themes of trade, imperialism, colonization, cross-cultural exchange, and local innovation.