Was the Gardiner Museum’s $15.5 renovation worth it?

You’d be forgiven for forgetting about the Gardiner Museum, the ceramic art gallery in downtown Toronto that was formerly operated by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) between 1987 and 1996, and that has lived, quite literally, in the shadow of its older and much larger sibling across the street.

The Gardiner’s $15.5 million renovation to its ground level, the results of which were revealed earlier this month, has even been overshadowed by the ROM’s own first-floor facelift , which is still ongoing.

Much of that is understandable. The cost of the ROM’s capital project is more than eight times that of the Gardiner’s. Its stakes are also higher: Everyone wants to know whether the acclaimed Canadian architect Siamak Hariri can fix the museum’s controversial Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Or will