TORONTO.- The Gardiner Museum announced the appointment of Sequoia Miller to the role of Chief Curator. Miller worked as a full-time studio potter before re-entering academia as a doctoral candidate in the History of Art at Yale. He is expected to receive his PhD in May.

In 2015, Miller curated the landmark exhibition The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art at the Yale University Art Gallery, bringing ceramic artists like Peter Voulkos, Lucie Rie, and Toshiko Takaezu into dialogue with painters and sculptors in other media including Willem de Kooning, Ed Ruscha, and Mark Rothko.

“We are delighted to welcome Sequoia to the Gardiner. As both a potter and a scholar, he brings a rare and exciting combination of academic, curatorial, and artistic experience to the Museum,” says Kelvin Browne, Executive Director and CEO of the Gardiner Museum.

“I am very excited to join the team at the Gardiner,” says Miller. “The museum does excellent work and is transforming into a dynamic platform for expanding our appreciation of how ceramics, broadly conceived, impacts all of our lives. I am eager to build on this momentum and contribute even more to the booming cultural life of Toronto.”

Miller will begin his tenure at the Gardiner in April. He joins the Museum in the midst of the popular exhibition YOKO ONO: THE RIVERBED, which has been driving visitors to the Gardiner to make their mark on Ono’s interactive installation.

Sequoia Miller is a historian, curator, and studio potter. He received a BA in Russian & Art History from Brandeis and an MA from the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture in New York City. Miller is anticipated to complete his doctorate in the History of Art at Yale in May 2018. His thesis analyzes the connections between ceramics and conceptual art practices on the East and West Coasts of the United States in the 1960s and ‘70s. Miller curated The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art at the Yale University Art Gallery, and authored the accompanying award-winning catalogue. His research also includes 16th and 17th-century German stoneware, English salt-glazed stoneware, and Queen Mary’s monumental delftware.

Before re-entering academia, Miller was a full-time studio potter for over 10 years. Based in the Pacific Northwest, he made one-of-a-kind functional pots for daily use in domestic environments. Miller exhibited widely and led workshops at craft schools, universities, and art centers.