Helen Gardiner

Helen Gardiner was born in 1938 in the Northern mining town of Kirkland Lake to a working family. She later moved to Toronto where her father was employed by General Electric.^[2] In 1974, she began attending York University as a mature student, and in 1979, she travelled to London, England to study at Christie's Education.^[3]

Helen was married to prominent Toronto businessman George R. Gardiner, with whom she co-founded the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art.^[4] Between 1976 and 1984, George and Helen built a distinctive collection of approximately 1,200 objects in a few carefully selected areas that were collected in depth: ancient Central and South American vessels and figures; tin glazed pottery of the Italian Renaissance; seventeenth-century English pottery; and eighteenth-century European porcelain.^[5]

In 1981, the Ontario government unanimously passed Bill 183 to establish the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art as an independent, public institution.^[6] It was officially opened in 1984 on the grounds of Victoria University, Toronto.^[5] "George and I built the museum and gave our collection to the people of Canada, but it was our hope that the Gardiner Museum would contribute in a meaningful way to the understanding and appreciation of ceramic art worldwide."^[7]

Helen was awarded the Order of Canada in 2007.

She died of pancreatic cancer in 2008 at her home in Caledon.^[3]