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

Stepping inside the newly renovated Gardiner Museum feels a bit like ascending to heaven. On November 6, the museum opened its doors to reveal a brand-new interior, with warm, bright light and softly curved white walls resembling clouds. The 9,000-square-foot space, designed by Montgomery Sisam Architects and Andrew Jones Design, is open yet oddly cozy, enveloping visitors in a comforting embrace.

The renovation opened up the lobby—previously clustered in four separate, slightly claustrophobic galleries—into one large space where visitors can move freely through different eras and styles of ceramics.

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The idea was to create a more inviting space, and it was made possible by a $9-million gift—the largest in the museum’s history—from the Radlett Foundation, established by philanthropist and collector William Humphries.

The new layout is all about fostering moments of interaction and surprise. “With ceramic art, you can have room-size sculptures or very small items like a mug or a teacup, so it was really important to have space for all manifestations of ceramics,” says the museum’s chief curator, Sequoia Miller.

The Ancient Americas collection has been renamed the Ancestral Abya Yala collection—the Indigenous term represents the Americas as a single entity rather than two separate continents. And what was once two different galleries showcasing the museum’s impressive collection of 17th- and 18th-century Delftware and ornamental Maiolica pottery, dating back to the Italian Renaissance, is now a single gallery called Connected Worlds.

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The centrepiece of the redesign is Yelákhwaˀ, an architectural sculpture by Chris Cornelius of Studio Indigenous. The name comes from an Oneida word for “container,” and the wood frame covered in copper mesh serves as both an art object in its own right and the structure delineating the Gallery of Indigenous Ceramics from the rest of the displays. “Indigeneity is right at the centre of the gallery,” says Miller.

The main floor is also home to a brand-new fully equipped clay studio, which hosts hands-on workshops and drop-in clay sessions, as well as a Community Learning Centre for classes and school groups. When it’s not in use, the area is a “chance for people to take a moment of reflection and repose, to think about what they’ve been looking at and maybe connect with the people they came to the museum with,” says Miller.

Another highlight from the renovation is the glass display separating the clay studio from the rest of the museum, filled with curious and delightful objects such as antique lettuceware and a giant soup tureen shaped like a boar’s head. This particular display is what Miller refers to as an experiment in “open collection storage.” While most museums have a very small portion of their collections on display at any given time, this glass storage wall gives the Gardiner the opportunity to have visitors engage with more objects on their own terms, outside of the context of an exhibition. “It’s a way to store our collection but also showcase the playfulness of the ceramics,” says museum CEO Gabrielle Peacock.

On November 8 and 9, the museum is hosting a weekend filled with activities to celebrate its new makeover. Drop by for free clay workshops, curator tours or simply to delight in the magic of ceramics.