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The
Gardiner Museum is the only museum in Canada to be entirely devoted
to ceramics. With works from Picasso's Large Vase with Veiled Women,
Maiolica dishes from the Italian Renaissance and a wonderful Chinese Porcelain
collection, the museum has something for everyone. The Gardiner Museum's
collection exceeds 29,000 pieces and is like a treasure chest of ceramic
wonders.
Located in the trendy Yorkville area across from the newly re-opened Royal
Ontario Museum, The Gardiner Museum is one of the best examples of
modernist architecture in the city of Toronto.
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Since
the museum's re-opening after undergoing a major expansion,
the collection has doubled in size, largely as a result of
important gifts of ceramic arts including:
- The Robert Murray Bell and Ann Walker Bell Collection
of Chinese Porcelain
- The Aaron Milrad Collection of International Contemporary
Ceramics
Beyond viewing the collections, The
Gardiner Museum allows its visitors to try out clay sculpture
or wheel throwing in the open clay studio, or take part in
an instructed course. Besides the wonderful courses the museum
offers artist talks, book launches and free Friday films.
The museum also boasts The Gail Brooker Ceramic Research Library,
it is the primary centre for research in the field of ceramics
in Canada. With over 2,500 volumes, this is an important resource
for the field of ceramics.
The Gardiner Museum's collections were established by a founding
gift from George and Helen Gardiner in 1984. The Gardiner's
collection spanned four major periods: Ancient Americas, Italian
Renaissance Maiolica, 17th century English pottery and 18th
century European porcelain.
The Gardiner Museum now has collections that span from 3500
BC to 2006. Their collections are as follows:
- Ancient Americas
- Chinese Porcelain
- English Delftware
- English Porcelain
- European Porcelain
- Italian Renaissance Maiolica
- Japanese Porcelain & Its Influence
- Modern & Contemporary Ceramics
The Ancient
America collection includes approximately 340 pieces from
Mexico and Central and South America dating from 2500 BP
(before the present) until the early 1500s. The history
of Asian ceramics spans thousands of years. Generation after
generation they have perfected the art of porcelain making.
The Gardiner Museum's collection of East Asian ceramics
was established by the gift from Roberto Murray Bell and
Ann Walker Bell from their collection of Chinese blue and
white porcelain. The European ceramics makes up the majority
of the collections of The Gardiner Museum. The collection
covers the areas of Italian Renaissance, English pottery
of the 17th & 18th century. It has smaller collections
of Continental pottery; and 18th-century European porcelain,
which includes porcelain made in Germany, Austria, France
and England, with smaller representations from other countries
such as Italy, Russian and Belgium.
The Gardiner Museum's Contemporary collection is made up
of approximately 200 pieces of major works by many of the
most important artists of this period.
The Gardiner Museum celebrates the joy, wonder and passion
of ceramic art and its power to reveal the richness of human
history and contemporary life. Their open doors welcome
you to go in and discover the beauty of all of their treasures.
Enjoy the close walk from The Hazelton Hotel’s front doors
to The Gardiner Museum.
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