July 9 – 20, 2025
Exhibition Hall. 3rd Floor
Included with PWYW admission. Free for Gardiner Friends.

Community Arts Space 2025

Established in 2016, Community Arts Space (CAS) is a series of collaborations with community partners and local artists, rooted in the real and metaphorical ability of clay to transform. The initiative builds on the Gardiner Museum’s long-standing commitment to working both within and beyond our gallery walls, using clay to connect people and reimagine the roles and responsibilities of a museum to its communities.

In recent years, CAS has evolved into a year-round framework of collaborative community programs, unified by an annual theme. These programs are grounded in clay-based workshops and feature gallery visits, artist talks, demonstrations, and presentations delivered on-site, off-site, and virtually. CAS provides meaningful opportunities for community collaborators to engage in all aspects of the Museum’s work.

Our theme for 2025—Formed and Transformed—speaks to the evolving nature of clay and the broader ways individuals and communities are shaped through shared experiences, cultural exchange, and creative expression. This year’s summer presentation features a collaboration with Nia Centre for the Arts. Together, we invited 10 participants from diverse artistic backgrounds, most with limited experience in ceramics, to explore their personal histories, inspirations, and cultural narratives through clay.

Through workshops, mentorships, and dialogue, participants engaged with the theme to reflect on how material and memory intersect. Their finished works are presented in the exhibition Test Kitchen: A Museum Project, inviting you to consider how both clay and community are continuously formed and transformed through the act of making.

Free Public Celebration and Artist Talk

Join us on Wednesday July 9 at 6 pm for a public celebration followed by a joint artist talk between Sarah Edo and Chiedza Pasipanodya.
Free registration

Participants:

Adryen Do Nascimento, Briana Jackson, Cheyanne Valencia-Hinds, Jouv Darl, Kae Egalite, Kalmplex, Raquel Monique Solomon, Rebecca Faloji, Robyn Mattrasingh, and Yas Hassen

Instructor:

Tamirah Taylor