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The Gardiner Museum
Category: Arts & Entertainment Museums Museums [Edit]
111 Queen's ParkToronto, ON M5S 2C7
Neighbourhoods: Discovery District, Downtown Core
(416) 586-8080
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
8 reviews for The Gardiner Museum
8 reviews in English
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Review from Nikola D.
Toronto, ON
12/19/2011 1 Check-in Here
The Gardiner Museum is one of Toronto's best kept secrets. What a pleasant surprise when we discovered it.
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Review from hangover n.
Toronto, ON
12/1/2011
While I appreciate a large museum, it's nice sometimes to visit a smaller one, where it's possible to see everything on view in an hour or so, and without becoming too overwhelmed. The Gardiner has a really beautiful collection of ceramic art, with both a permanent collection and temporary exhibits. There's reduced admission on Friday evenings, too. Recommended.
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Review from Kat T.
9/22/2010
Another great place for wedding gifts. The boutique in the front offers a lot of the same artists work as Clay on Harbourd.
The service is great and with a variety of pieces in different colors and styles, everyone would appreciate a nice bowl or serving plate from The Gardiner Museum. -
Review from Avitania B.
Toronto, ON
8/1/2010 1 Check-in Here
This would be the awesomest museum... if I liked ceramic art. ;) I was drawn in by the large for their 'Private Pleasures" exhibit, which advertised a peek into the lives of geisha and samurai. The title of this exhibit is definitely much more provocative than the items in the exhibit itself. On the tour, I learned a lot about Edo period ceramics, but not much about the lives of geisha and/or samurai.
The museum itself is bright and modern, with three floors of exhibits. If you're into ceramics and porcelain, then you'll certainly like it. As for me... I'm too much of an uncultured swine to really get into it. -
Review from John F.
North York, ON
8/22/2010
This is a good museum which with a little more gallery space and an expanded display collection (I assume they have loads not on display) could be a great one.
What they do cover is very good, but patchy. Nonetheless if you love ceramics and porcelain you'll have a ball here. The current permanent displays cover Meso-American antiquities (mostly Mayan and some amazingly sophisticated); Italian Renaissance Majolica, much of it with exquisite paintings; contemporary ceramic sculpture, varying in quality; Japanese porcelain; European porcelain with an exquisite collection of Meissen and Viennese objects; and early English porcelain. There is an entire floor devoted to special exhibits. The one being presented during my visit dealt with contextualism in Japanese Edo period ceramics by juxtaposing them with other crafts and arts - well done and presented but too few objects given the large space that was available for the exhibit.
If you are looking for classical antiquities (e. g,. Greek vases) or Chinese porcelain, go to the ROM, which has a great collection of both and which I assume is why neither is covered much here. What I would not mind seeing more of, if they had the space and possessed the objects, would be the following:
Islamic ceramics (perhaps the Aga Khan's collection in the new Islamic museum will fill the slack)
Korean ceramics (I love Korean celadon)
Early Canadian and American porcelain and ceramics
Lomonosov and other Russian porcelain
Indigenous American ceramics from the 19th century through contemporary
Nonetheless, this is a most enjoyable specialty museum and possesses some objects that are so exquisite they will make you gasp. I had to say my favourite was the adorable little "singerie", an entire porcelain orchestra of monkeys dressed in eighteenth century clothing - perhaps the height of rococco silliness but lots of fun.
Information and signage is quite well presented.
I would probably not bring little boys here (unless they exhibit the signs of growing up into gay men!) but little girls would be delighted with much of this, especially the figurines. -
Review from Mae S.
3/19/2010
Small museum but nice. Pre-columbian ceramics are displayed in a useful way -- geographically.
The museum guards immediately showed me what to look at when I entered their area. It was startling but useful. I get a feeling everyone who works here is very enthusiastic. I especially enjoyed the special exhibit of Israeli ceramics. -
Review from Skye W.
12/24/2009
I was so excited to go to the Gardiner Museum for the first time after living in Toronto forever and not really knowing about it. I went with a friend and got the student discount. I thought the museum was wonderfully curated without being overwhelming or too monotonous, however, the collection and space is small and there were NO other visitors other than at the museum shop. Their top floor seemed to have a small temporary exhibit, which was refreshing. I have a feeling that if i came back in a year, most if not all of the stuff would be the same. There is little chance one would spend more than an hour here and I really think this museum is not spectacular to be a stand alone museum. I'd much rather go to the Art Gallery of Ontario or the ROM.
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Review from Plank D.
Scarborough, ON
12/13/2009 2 photos
This is a great museum experience. Before walking into this place, I had no knowledge surrounding ceramic art. I may as well have been walking into a building called the Gardiner Museum of Fancy Dishes. Oh how wrong I was. Well, not entirely. I mean they do have the fancy dishes, and lots of them, but they have so much more.
First of all, the exterior of the place catches your eye. It's a magnificent modern building nestled in between some of the old Toronto architecture from the late 19th and early 20th century. The amazing thing is that the museum stands out on its own and yet blends right in with the old architecture. This is very unlike the disaster that we call the Michael Lee Chin Crystal across the street.
The museum itself is bright and inviting. There is a big lobby that lets you find your own way around and each room is filled with different and unexpected treasures. The stuff that impressed me the most was the huge collection of ancient clay effigies of people and animals, some of which dated back to almost 2000 B.C. Other gems are vases painted by Pablo Picasso and a huge collection of modern sculptures, some of which you can't believe are made entirely form clay.
The second flood takes you up to the fine china and porcelain figures from Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. The great thing about the second floor is that there are a couple of big wooden balconies that you can slip out onto and catch a breath of fresh air before continuing up to the third floor. There is also a great restaurant with a cool balcony that looks out onto the side of the ROM. Right now, Jamie Kennedy is working at the Gardiner Museum Resto, so it's worth the price of admission. The fare is good and not too pricy. It's a great place to grab a bite before you make your way up to the third floor that holds the work of a modern artist. It's a great placed to pop into and it's a hidden gem right in front of our eyes in the heart of the city.
