The Gardiner Museum in Toronto has reopened after a 15-month, CA$15.5 million renovation of its ground floor spaces. The overhaul, led by Montgomery Sisam Architects and Andrew Jones Design with studio:indigenous, includes new collection galleries, a reworked entrance hall, a ceramics studio, and a community learning center. The renovation was funded by public and private gifts, including a CA$9 million donation from the Radlett Foundation that also added over 250 ceramic objects. A key addition is "Indigenous Immemorial," a permanent gallery dedicated to Indigenous clay art, developed by the museum's first curator of Indigenous ceramics, Franchesca Hebert-Spence, in collaboration with Indigenous artists and advisors.
The renovation matters because it allows the Gardiner to display up to 40 percent of its 5,000-piece ceramics collection at once—an unusually high percentage for a museum—and signals a deepening institutional commitment to Indigenous art and collaboration. The permanent Indigenous gallery and inaugural commissions by artists like Nadia Myre and Linda Rotua Sormin position the museum as a more inclusive and culturally responsive institution, while the expanded facilities enhance its role as a community hub for ceramic art in Toronto.