Clay as Art Therapy

For over a decade, the Gardiner has been at the forefront of therapeutic art sessions for children and adult survivors of intimate violence. Working in partnership with service organizations, alongside leading art therapists and ceramists, the Museum has provided a safe, welcoming environment for children, young people, and adults to explore their traumas and experience mutual recovery in a group setting.

Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic Expressive Arts Group

The Gardiner Museum Expressive Arts Group is for women survivors of child sexual abuse/incest, adult sexual assault, and intimate partner abuse. The women work with clay to produce a ceramic piece of art in reference to a common theme that is introduced in advance of their participation. Each year an exhibition of the artwork created is displayed to raise public awareness about violence against women in a sensitive, informed and compelling way.

Radius Children & Youth Services Expressive Arts Group

The Gardiner hosts a twelve-week ceramic arts group for children and youth who have experienced interfamilial sexual abuse. The group combines elements of art therapy, mindfulness practice, ceramics, community development, education, and social justice with the goal of breaking the silence that has traditionally surrounded sexual abuse. It empowers children and youth to share their stories through the creation of ceramic sculptures while they heal and navigate through difficult experiences. The workshops culminate in an exhibition of artwork that is open for public viewing.

Toronto Community Hepatitis C Program

The project “Recruiting Allies Through Clay: Artists and Communities Co-Creating Equitable Access to High Quality Hepatitis C Virus Care” was created for a group of vulnerable individuals that is often pushed to the margins of society. Participants create a clay self-portrait on four clay tiles; two of their tiles contributed to a group wall mural and the remaining two they keep. At the completion of the session, participants collaborate together to design an opening night art exhibit.

Clay to Deepen Engagement

The Gardiner understands that clay can offer a creative experience like no other. By taking part in a clay class, each participant is engaging in a creative practice that contributes to the feeling of social inclusion and mental well-being. Clay is tactile, it is not precious or fragile in an unfired state; it allows for play and changes to be made at any part of the process, yet requires immense concentration and discipline. It is this required focus that can remove the inhibitions of those working with clay. Participants can easily continue to create while conversing with fellow classmates leading to greater socialization.

Community Access

The Gardiner Museum participates in a number of access oriented programs to ensure the broadest possible audience has access to its collections, exhibitions, and programs:

• Youth 18 and under are always free
• Half-price admission every Wednesday from 4 – 9 pm
• Museum + Arts Pass (MAP) lets you and your family (2 adults & up to 5 children) explore the best of Toronto’s arts and cultural treasures for free. With your valid adult Toronto Public Library card, you can take out a pass for your family at select Toronto Public Library branches.
• Canoo Access Pass (formerly known as the Cultural Access Pass) provides free admission to new Canadian Citizens during their first year of citizenship

Community Access Fund

Each year the Gardiner welcomes 10,000 school children through our educational programs. With the guidance and encouragement of a ceramist and our educational staff team, children and young people from Grades K-12 work with clay in our studios. Each session has several curriculum links and offers a tactile art experience. The Gardiner’s Community Access Fund provides subsidies to schools and groups from under-resourced neighbourhoods that might otherwise be unable to visit the Museum.

Community Events

The Gardiner participates in several community events throughout the year to engage the broader public through the transformative power of working with clay. Our own public programming includes Family Days, which engage visitors in the tactile experience of making ceramics, as well as our drop-in classes and clay courses. The national initiative, Culture Days, offers an annual opportunity to reach a large number of visitors and offer them free admission and clay making opportunities.

Community Partnerships

The Gardiner Museum works with community and cultural partners to bring new groups and visitors to the Museum. Through ongoing partnerships and those formed for specific projects, the Gardiner promotes creativity, social interaction, and well-being through clay. Our partners have included Soundstreams Canada, Human Rights Watch, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts festival, The Next 36, Victoria College at the University of Toronto, Alliance Française, RPM.fm Indigenous Music Culture, Akin Projects, South Riverdale Community Health Centre, Crazy Dames, UnSpun Theatre, VIBE Arts, and many more.