Meredith Chilton is a specialist in eighteenth-century European porcelain, dining, and social culture. She first joined Toronto’s Gardiner Museum in 1983, working with the team responsible for opening the museum. She subsequently became the museum’s curator, a role she retained for over twenty years.

In 2004, Chilton left the museum to work on Fired by Passion: Vienna Baroque Porcelain of Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier, a three-volume monograph for the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Foundation. She was principal contributor to Daily Pleasures: French Ceramics from the MaryLou Boone Collection. Chilton returned to the Gardiner Museum as its chief curator between 2015 and 2017, leading a major renovation and re-installation of the European porcelain gallery.

During her career, Chilton curated more than 20 exhibitions and published approximately 50 articles and books, including her award-winning Harlequin Unmasked: The Commedia dell’Arte and Porcelain Sculpture. She was honored by the Gardiner Museum Volunteers, who named the Meredith Chilton Commedia dell’Arte Gallery in perpetuity at the museum.

Chilton was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2017 and became curator emerita at the Gardiner Museum following her retirement.