The Portage Ceramics Trust was set up in 2005 to purchase a significant collection relating to Crown Lynn Potteries Limited, a highly successful New Zealand company which operated from 1948 until 1989. Their products were in virtually every New Zealand home. The collection includes finished pieces as well as tools and equipment used to make them and an archive.

The collection has since been expanded and consists of around 5000 pieces from other West Auckland companies and includes ceramics, tools and equipment, and an archive. There are items from the earliest pipe making days to more recent donations such Monier bricks which closed in 2015.
The organisation's role is to preserve these collections and make them available to the community through exhibitions, research, public programmes and online.

Te Toi Uku, the museum space, is located next to the historic Gardner Brothers and Parker downdraught kiln in Ambrico Place.