Exploring Ceramics at the Gardiner Museum

While in Toronto recently I had some time before my flight home, unsurprisingly I used that time to visit bookstores and heritage sites.  I was torn between all the possibilities in Toronto but opted to visit a couple of museums I hadn’t been to before.  The Gardiner Museum located in Toronto is Canada’s national ceramics museum.  Founded in 1984 by George and Helen Gardiner it was originally designed to house their collection of ceramic art.  Since the 1980s the collection has grown substantially and is now viewed as one of the most substantial collections of ceramics in North America.

Ground Floor

The ground floor of the Gardiner includes Modern/Contemporary ceramics, Ancient Americas, Italian Miolica and English Delftware.  There is also currently as small exhibition dedicated to Edmund De Waal and another one to Vimmy Ridge.  My favourite part of this floor was the numerous audio visual stations which included tablets where you could learn about different ceramic techniques, the historical significance of pieces on display, and about the collection more broadly.  I particularly enjoyed a video clip which showed an artist recreating an 18th century puzzle jug.  Puzzle jugs were used for drinking games in pubs and taverns and I found the whole idea and complexity behind them fascinating.  In case anyone else is interested (and because it’s just so cool), I’ve included the video which was created by the Victoria and Albert Museum below:

 Second Floor

Ceramic monkey orchestra
Ceramic monkey orchestra

This floor was dedicated to Japanese and Chinese porcelain and also included a substantial European porcelain gallery.  The narrative and historical context in the European gallery was extremely well done.  It placed ceramics within larger political and social movements.  It also really connected the narrative to the idea of a war of personalities and tangible excitement around the idea of collecting new types and styles of ceramics.  I found myself oddly invested in the text panels and wanting to know how the narrative concluded.  This gallery also included a number of slightly bizarre pieces of ceramics – weird looking cats and a monkey orchestra.  In more than one instance I found myself laughing out loud (and probably looking like a crazy person) at some of the stranger items.

True Nordic

Part of the True Nordic exhibition.
Part of the True Nordic exhibition.

The George R. Gardiner Special Exhibition Gallery is located on the third floor of the Gardiner.  At the moment this space is hosting True Nordic: How Scandinavia Influenced Design in Canada This space was by far the most crowded in the Museum and it was also my least favourite gallery.  The Nordic exhibition focuses on seven decades of Scandinavian influence on Canadian design.  It included ceramics, furniture, glassware, interior design pieces, and textiles.  The exhibition also incorporated a couple of National Film Board clips showing various Canadian artists at work – eg. a family making Nordic inspired ceramic light fixtures. I did really enjoy some of the textile pieces in this gallery – but I love almost any example of textile as art – so that probably isn’t too surprising.

Overall

I would recommend the Gardiner to anyone interested in ceramic art.  It’s not a huge museum and you can easily take it all in a couple of hours.  The gallery spaces were well laid out and had a variety of media incorporated to engage all type of users.  I also noticed that Sundays they do programming specifically geared at bringing children into the museum space which I’m always happy to see.

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