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.