Gardiner Museum

05/28/2026

What a night ✨🏺Thank you to everyone who attended and supported last night's International Ceramic Art Fair Preview Gala!

We kicked off the return of our contemporary ceramics biennial with an incredible community of artists, gallerists, arts philanthropists, and culture lovers. We're still buzzing from the energy and creativity that filled the Museum.

See the full album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1265855325755931&type=3

📷: George Pimentel Photography

The International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) is now open to the public until August 16. From 3D-printed architecture to interactive ceramic terrains, join us as we explore how clay shapes our cities, our sense of belonging, and our future.

Supporting Sponsors
Appleyard Rebanks Family
Eddy Reitberger

Government Support
Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund

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
Collective Arts Brewing
The Food Dudes

Thanks To
3D Potter

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

05/28/2026

05/27/2026

The 3D Potter is fired up and we're getting ready for the International Ceramic Art Fair, opening tomorrow! 🔥

As part of our 2026 ceramics biennial, Ronald Rael—architect, artist, and activist—designed a modular brick that's being fabricated in the exhibition hall by a clay printer. As the bricks print, museum staff will assemble them into a column that will grow over the course of the exhibition.

Rael will also be the keynote speaker at our sold-out ICAF 2026 Symposium, taking place this weekend. His practice brings together 3D printing and adobe, the ancient technology of building with sundried clay. He combines the ancestral with the contemporary to explore issues of sustainability, identity, and belonging.

Expanded to a full 12-week exhibition, ICAF 2026 showcases how Canadian and international artists are shaping the future of clay.

Plan your visit: https://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/event/international-ceramic-art-fair-2026/

05/25/2026

The 2026 ICAF Symposium is officially sold out! 📣

We’re excited to welcome an incredible lineup of speakers over two days for conversations about ceramics at the intersection of urban space, shelter, and the commons.

Meet our final group of presenters:

Rajni Perera: Rajni's work explores issues of hybridity, futurity, ancestorship, migrant and marginalized identities/cultures, monsters, and dream worlds.

Tanis Worme: A Plains Cree artist, Tanis's work considers notions of memory through blood and storytelling while questioning the impulse of colonial thought.

Dana Prieto: Born in Buenos Aries and based in Toronto, Dana's site-responsive work examines personal and collective relations with with colonial infrastructure through a careful attention to the ground.

Linda Zhang: An architect, interior designer, creative technologist, and educator, Linda's ceramic practices explores how memories are embodied through processes like slipcasting and reproduction technologies.

ROSEMARY Gallery: A roving project co-directed by Jaimie Isaac and Suzanne Morrissette that engages in critical arts-based programs including exhibitions, performances, public discussions, community feasts, and celebrations.

If you got your tickets we'll see you this weekend!

05/22/2026

Romanticizing spring in Toronto one museum visit at a time 🌷🏺

From exploring new exhibitions to browsing the Shop to taking a pottery class, there’s always something to discover at the Gardiner Museum ✨

Save this for your next Toronto spring outing 👀

05/21/2026

Meet the 2,500-year-old parrot that sings! 🦜💧

This Salinar whistling bottle is a favourite of our Senior Manager of Education, Aida Ali. By moving water through its chambers, the vessel creates sounds mimicking the natural world—from tropical birds to croaking frogs.

Whether it was used for rituals, celebrations, or as a clever hunting tool, it remains one of the most captivating pieces in our collection.

Visit the Ancestral Abiayala Gallery on our ground floor to see it in person.

Double-chambered whistling bottle with parrot, Salinar culture, Cerro Arena, North Coast, Peru, 500 - 300 BCE, Earthenware with slip, Gift of George and Helen Gardiner, G83.1.159

05/20/2026

The Gardiner is remembering longtime volunteer Bette Ounjian who passed away over the weekend. Bette was a familiar and friendly face at the Museum for 30 years.

She began her journey with the Gardiner in September 1996 as an Archive volunteer and her dedication only grew from there. She went on to serve as Chair of the Archives Committee in 2003 and 2004, and was trained as a Docent in 2000, a role she held with great distinction.

Always kind to those she met, Bette spread that warmth across the Museum. She was a trusted and knowledgeable voice for visitors, and an important contributor to the Joy of Ceramics fundraising event. Her dedication, kindness, and joy touched everyone who had the privilege of working alongside her. She will be greatly missed.

05/19/2026

In Highway Blues (1970) Harlan House uses the Volkswagen Beetle to comment on the intersection of environmentalism, consumerism, and masculinity. 🚙

A four-lane roadway disappears into a mess of blue and greenish-yellow glaze. What’s going on?

The wider section is meant to evoke a Volkswagen Beetle. First introduced to Canada in 1953, the Beetle was small and not very powerful, unlike the large American cars and trucks that dominated at the time (and today). By the 1970s, it was a pop culture phenomenon with hippie undertones. The artist describes how, in Calgary, it was an object of ridicule. Larger vehicles with powerful engines not only consumed more fuel, they also symbolized heightened masculinity.

The exhibition Highways of Harlan House uncovers a largely unknown chapter in the career of one of Canada’s most celebrated studio potters. He adopted the motif of the highway to symbolize the increasing exploitation and degradation of the land, using sculpture as a means to explore social issues beyond what he found in functional pottery.

See it in The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation Hall on our ground floor today. Plan your visit: https://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/event/highways-of-harlan-house/

Harlan House (Canadian, b. 1943), Highway Blues, 1970, Glazed stoneware, Artist’s Collection. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

05/18/2026

Your reminder that museum dates never miss 🏺🤍

We’re celebrating with 4 tips for visiting the Gardiner Museum:

🕐 Plan for 2+ hours
🚇 Take the TTC for an easy trip
🎟️ Grab tickets online before you go
🛍️ Don’t miss the and .restaurant

Trust us…you’re going to want the extra time 👀

05/15/2026

Let’s build something—brick by brick 🧱✨

Community members are invited to gather and participate in collective brickmaking, facilitated by Suzanne Morrissette and Jaimie Isaac of ROSEMARY Gallery.

The session will open with a shared meal and dialogue with the artists, followed by a day of hands-on brickmaking. The bricks created will be installed at the Gardiner as part of our International Ceramic Art Fair.

This program is FREE and open to all!

🗓 Friday May 29 | 12 PM – 6 PM
📍 Gardiner Museum, Community Learning Centre (Ground Floor)
🎟 Free! Registration is encouraged, but drop-ins are welcome.

Tap here to secure your spot: https://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/event/brickmaking-with-rosemary-skool-may-29-2026/

About the Artists

Makers, artists, curators, thinkers, mothers, community members, and collaborators Jaimie Isaac (Anishinaabekwe member of Sagkeeng First Nation) and Suzanne Morrissette (Red River Métis, citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation), co-direct ROSEMARY Gallery, a roving project that emerges from the belief that art is rooted in our relationships to others in our neighborhoods, communities, and cities.

The name ROSEMARY blends the first names of the artists’ grandmothers—Rose Morrissette (Richard), and Dr. Elder Mary Courchene—in recognition of the strength and vision of their matriarchal leadership.

05/14/2026

Make the long weekend memorable 🏺

Come explore stunning new galleries and incredible objects that will have you seeing clay in a whole new way!

🗓️ Open all long weekend, 10 am – 5 pm
📍 111 Queen’s Park, Toronto

https://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/