Détail de l’événement

The Gardiner Museum is an inviting destination that inspires and connects people, art and ideas through clay, one of the world’s oldest art forms. Year‐round the Museum mounts special exhibitions, events, lectures and clay classes to complement its permanent collection.

The Museum also features a bistro that serves delicious local fare prepared by à la Carte Kitchen Inc., and the Gardiner Shop, which specializes in artist‐designed, artist‐made merchandise.

This application is for “Caribbean Ceramics in Diaspora and 2026 International Ceramic Art Festival (ICAF)” taking place May 27 to August 16, 2026, and “Caribbean Ceramics in Diaspora” taking place October 22, 2026, to April 11, 2027, the museum’s two largest exhibits since their re-opening after extensive renovations. A highly anticipated event series in the international ceramics community, ICAF activates the Gardiner as a site of celebration and discovery. Returning in 2026 as a biennial program, ICAF’s presentation will expand from a ten-day fair to a twelve-week major exhibition, enabling a significant opportunity for increased audience engagement. The programming includes:

(1) ICAF gala celebration on May 27th;

(2) An exhibition of new and existing works by Canadian and international artists, including Mel Arsenault (Canada), Sharif Farrag (USA), Hadi Jamali (Canada);

(3) Two-day symposium informed by the curatorial theme; and

(4) Artist talks, hands-on demonstrations, guided tours of the exhibition by the curators and invited guests in both English and French, and family-oriented creative activities.

The museum’s fall 2026 special exhibition, “Caribbean Ceramics in Diaspora”, is organized in collaboration with San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) and Toronto’s Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue (BAND). Conceived as a single project exhibited across two spaces, “Caribbean Ceramics in Diaspora” will consider the differences between Canada and the United States as sites of expression, exploring how Caribbean culture expands each national culture distinctly. The programming includes:

(1) Works by PJ Anderson, Manitoba (Jamaica), Eddy Firmin, Quebec / Nova Scotia (Guadeloupe), Anina Major, New York (Bahamas), Manuel Mathieu, Quebec (Haiti), Sharon Norwood, Georgia / Ontario (Jamaica), and Tavares Strachan, New York (Bahamas);

(2) Master Class by one of the exhibiting artists;

(3) Clay class series comprised of eight sessions in Winter/Spring 2027 inspired by practices of (self) portraiture;

(4) Musical and/or spoken word performances; and

(5) Culinary pop-up by local chefs specializing in Caribbean cuisine.