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The George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art (Gardiner Museum) is a major ceramics museum situated within University of Toronto’s St. George campus, in downtown Toronto. The museum was established by George and Helen Gardiner, and was opened to the public on 6 March 1984. The Gardiner Museum is among the few museums in the world focused on ceramics and is one of the world’s most notable specialty museums. In addition to exhibits for its collection, the museum organizes contemporary ceramic art exhibitions.

The Gardiner Museum has a collection of over 5,000 objects from the Ancient Americas, Europe, Japan and China, as well as contemporary works with an emphasis on leading Canadian artists.

The Gardiner Museum, with the support of the Government of Canada, announced in September 2023 that it is undertaking its largest capital project in 20 years—a full-scale transformation of the Museum’s ground floor based on the principles of access, connectivity, and Indigeneity.

The Gardiner Museum appointed Franchesca Hebert-Spence as its inaugural Curator of Indigenous Ceramics to oversee the narrative and content development of the Gardiner Museum’s new Indigenous gallery space, part of a full-scale transformation of the Gardiner’s ground floor guided by the principles of access, connectivity, and Indigeneity.

The Gardiner’s transformation project will allow the Museum to highlight the cross-cultural history of ceramics and showcase the ways in which contemporary artists are using the medium in new and exciting ways.

The project advances the Gardiner’s commitment to reconciliation through the establishment of a permanent gallery space for Indigenous ceramics, developed by Franchesca Hebert-Spence, Curator of Indigenous Ceramics at the Gardiner Museum, and designed by Chris Cornelius of studio:indigenous, in consultation with the Gardiner’s Indigenous Advisory Circle.

Ace’s work Transformer (2018) and kinoownaa (to counsel somebody) (2024) are included in the Gardiner Museum’s reimagining for a new Indigenous gallery space.

Press

Toronto Life: Inside the Gardiner Museum’s stunning $15-million renovation

Globe and Mail: House of ceramics. Toronto’s Gardiner Museum reopens after a $15.5-million renovation with a new Indigenous art gallery