Toronto’s Top 10 : Museums & Art Galleries

1. Art Gallery of Ontario

   Reflecting
   some 600 years of human creative endeavor, the gallery’s permanent
   collection contains more than 68,000 works in all media. The Canadian
   collection is particularly impressive .
   

2. Royal Ontario Museum

   Canada’s
   foremost museum offers an excellent balance of art, archeology,
   science, and nature, and has more than six million artifacts in its
   collections .
   

3. Ontario Science Centre

   Over
   800 high-tech, interactive exhibits within 11 specially themed
   exhibition halls aim to make science fun and fascinating. Youthful
   visitors can navigate their way in a rocket chair, climb the rockwall,
   touch a tornado, and explore the hair-raising effects of electricity .
   

   
   

   
   
   

   Ontario Science Centre

4. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art

   The
   only museum in North America devoted solely to ceramics was founded in
   1984 by private Canadian collectors George and Helen Gardiner to
   showcase their extraordinary collection of pre-Columbian American
   pottery and European porcelain. Recent additions include Asian ceramics
   and contemporary artwork .
   

5. Design Exchange

   Located
   in the magnificent former Toronto Stock Exchange building, an Art Deco
   gem built in 1937, this center celebrates postwar Canadian design.
   Furniture, housewares, sportsgear, and medical equipment are among the
   items in the permanent collection and highlight the role of design in
   daily life. The center also hosts major national and international
   exhibitions. A gorgeous mural on the upstairs Trading Floor depicts
   Canadian industrial themes .

6. Textile Museum of Canada

   A
   permanent collection of over 10,000 fabrics, quilts, ceremonial cloths,
   and carpets from around the world are housed in this small but
   excellent museum. Temporary contemporary exhibits round out the
   historical artifacts.

   • 55 Centre Ave

   • 416 599 5321

   • Open 11am–5pm daily; (until 8pm Wed)

   • Adm

   • 
     www.textilemuseum.ca
     

   
   

   
   
   

   Robe, Textile Museum

7. McMichael Canadian Art Collection

   The
   outstanding Group of Seven collection is the treasure of this gallery.
   The Group endeavored, in the early 20th century, to express a
   distinctive national identity through their paintings of the Canadian
   wilderness .
   

   
   

   
   
   

   McMichael Canadian Art Collection

8. Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

   Known
   for its boundary-pushing exhibitions of contemporary Canadian and
   international art, this edgy, non-collecting gallery features rotating
   shows of consistently high quality. If the art sometimes mystifies
   visitors, at least the building is instantly recognizable: a brick
   smokestack tops the 1920s converted power station .
   

9. Toronto Dominion Gallery of Inuit Art

   As
   Inuit tool makers turned their skills to sculpting, the culture
   experienced a renaissance, this time in artistic achievement. Most of
   the 200 pieces in this gallery specializing in postwar Inuit sculpture
   are carved soapstone, each evocative of the landscape, culture, and
   legends of the indigenous people of Canada’s harsh Arctic region. The
   gallery’s design echoes that of the TD Bank Tower, by renowned modernist
   architect Mies van der Rohe .
   

10. Bata Shoe Museum

    This
    unusual building, resembling a stylized shoebox, houses more than
    10,000 shoes, covering 4,500 years of footwear history. Artifacts
    represent an unparalleled range, from Ancient Egyptian funerary shoes
    (1500 BC) to 19th-century Nigerian camel-riding boots to Marilyn
    Monroe’s red leather pumps .
    

    
    

    
    
    

    Bata Shoe Museum

Top 10 Small Museums