What did we achieve with your support this year?
2025 Highlights:
Painting with Clay
January 18 – May 25
Guest curated by Anong Migwans Beam and Elka Weinstein
Painting with Clay featured ceramic works made by the Beam family from M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. Carl (1943-2005) and Ann Beam (1944-2024) both had an interest in creating decorative paintings on pottery pieces, partially inspired by Carl’s lifelong search for Anishnaabe pottery.
Beyond the Threshold
September 20, 2025 – January 11, 2026
Beyond the Threshold builds upon the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery’s continued collaboration with A Better Tent City and brings together the work of 18 artists from across the country who confront the shocking realities of the affordable housing crisis through deeply personal and varied perspectives. Through exhibition installations, and a special publication to accompany the exhibition, their work speaks to the complex, and often painful, relationship between identity, place, and survival.
Remembrance Every Day
September 20 to December 11, 2025
Guest Curated by John Short and Denis Longchamps
Marking 80 years since the end of World War II, Remembrance Every Day showcases clay and glass artists from across Canada who, through their own art and through community engagement projects, explore the enduring impacts of war, the legacy of peacekeeping, and the importance of memory in a time of global unrest. Themes include loss, heroism, community resilience, and the personal and collective cost of conflicts. A commemorative publication is now in the works.
Ceramics & Glass Sustainability & the Environment Symposium
January 9 – 10
The Gallery was proud to host a symposium focused on the environmental impact and sustainability of clay and glass art and craft. The event was attended by 50 artists, curators, studio managers, researchers, and other practitioners, moving forward the conversation around how to make clay and glass practice more sustainable.
Family Art Cart
In January 2025, supported by a generous grant from Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Gallery launched a new program for children aged 5 – 12. The program offers weekend programs which provide instruction, encouragement and support for children in ceramic and glass art, as well as outreach programming for schools and community groups. To date, the program has engaged more than 5,000 children across Waterloo Region.
Supporting Emerging and Equity Deserving Artists
The Gallery continues to expand our support through the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics, The RBC Award for Glass, and The TD Arts Residency for Black, Indigenous and Underrepresented Peoples and Communities. In 2025, more than $50,000 was awarded to early career and equity deserving artists to support their development.
2026: An Exciting Year to Come!
Weathered Rock: D’Andrea Bowie
January 10 – May 17
A unique and exciting new exhibition, Weathered Rock: D’Andrea Bowie will be centred around a significant site-specific sculptural installation exploring themes of material transformation, ecological reciprocity, and place-based inquiry through a multi-disciplinary sculptural practice rooted in eco feminist research-creation. At its core, this exhibition seeks to reframe the concept of the monument through a lens of reciprocity between maker, material, and time.
FROGS’ RETURN: Melanie Barnett
January 17 – May 24
In our contemporary world, we’ve grown increasingly detached from the natural environments that once sustained and inspired us. Where we once sought survival, wisdom, and beauty, we now turn away — or exploit for profit. Ceramic artist Melanie Barnett reawakens this forgotten bond through works informed by mycology, agronomy, and climate science.
Community Programming
We will continue to break down barriers to art, creativity and self-expression for thousands of children, youth, seniors and marginalized individuals through our dedicated school and community programs.
