Bata Shoe Museum facts for kids
The museum building on Bloor Street in 2016
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| Established | 1979 |
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| Location | 327 Bloor Street West Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Type | Calceology |
| Visitors | 110,334 (2018) |
| Founder | Sonja Bata |
| Architect | Moriyama & Teshima Architects |
| Public transit access |
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The Bata Shoe Museum (often called BSM) is a special museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It's all about footwear and the study of shoes, which is called calceology. The museum building is located in downtown Toronto, close to the University of Toronto's St. George campus. The building is about 3,665 square metres (39,450 sq ft) and was designed by Moriyama & Teshima Architects. Raymond Moriyama was the main architect.
The museum's amazing collection of shoes started with Sonja Bata. She began collecting shoes in the mid-1940s. In 1979, Sonja Bata created the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation. Her goal was to have her collection looked after by experts. She also wanted to build a museum to keep, store, and show off the shoes. The foundation first showed parts of the collection in 1992. However, the museum's permanent home didn't open until May 1995.
As of 2018, the museum has over 13,000 shoes and other items related to footwear. Some items are as old as 4,500 years! This makes it the largest collection of footwear in the world. Many items are kept safely in storage, while others are on display in the museum's main exhibit. The museum also hosts many temporary shows and special programs.
Contents
History of the Museum
The museum's collection began with Sonja Bata. She became interested in shoes because of her husband's company, the Bata shoe company. Sonja started collecting shoes after she married Thomas J. Bata in 1946 and they moved to Toronto. The Bata family moved to Toronto in the 1940s to help their company grow in Canada and the Americas.
By the late 1970s, Sonja's personal collection had grown to 1,500 pairs of shoes! There wasn't enough space for them. A friend suggested that Sonja create a foundation to manage the collection. So, in 1979, Sonja Bata started the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation. This group would help fund research about footwear and take care of the collection. Even though it shared the Bata name, the foundation was a non-profit group, separate from the shoe company. Sonja Bata wanted the museum to be funded privately, not by public money. The museum is mainly supported by a trust created from the Bata family's own money.
After the foundation was set up, they looked for a building to house the collection. They wanted a place to show shoes and do research. Some early ideas for the museum's location didn't work out. Finally, the foundation hired Moriyama & Teshima Architects to design a special building. The museum opened its doors to the public on May 6, 1995.
In January 2006, some very valuable items were stolen from the museum. These included jewel-covered Indian slippers, a gold anklet, and a toe ring. Luckily, these stolen items were found and returned to the museum a few weeks later.
The Museum Building
The museum is located at the corner of St. George Street and Bloor Street West. It's a 3,665 square metre (39,450 sq ft) building. Before the museum was built, there was a gas station on this spot. The closest subway station is St. George station.
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The building has three floors and a unique, modern design. It was designed by Moriyama & Teshima Architects, with Raymond Moriyama leading the project. Moriyama was inspired by the boxes used to store the Bata family's shoe collection. He wanted the building to look like a shoe box with a tilted lid. The building uses almost all the land it's on because of rules about how tall buildings can be. The outside of the building is made of smooth, angled limestone from France. It also has glass walls that stick out, forming the entrance.
Inside, the museum has five floors, including two underground. Besides the exhibit halls, there's a gift shop, a lecture theatre, and a reception area. The floors on the lower levels are made of dark wood, arranged in a diamond pattern. This design makes visitors look down at their own feet! The main hall has a central staircase decorated with bronze medallions. There are also circles cut into the stairs to let in light. A tall stained glass panel, shaped like shoes, sits above the central staircase. Even the reception desk is designed to look like a shoe when seen from the stairs.
What You Can See: Exhibitions
The museum has four galleries for showing shoes. One gallery has the permanent exhibition, which is always there. The other three galleries are used for temporary shows that change over time. The permanent exhibit is called All About Shoes: Footwear Through the Ages. It's located on the two lower levels of the building. The temporary shows are on the second and third floors. These galleries are designed to be "neutral spaces" so they can host many different types of exhibits. To protect the delicate shoes, the galleries have special controls for temperature and humidity, and not much natural light.
Besides the shows inside the building, the museum also has online exhibitions. You can even find parts of the All About Shoes exhibit online. The Virtual Museum of Canada has also hosted online exhibits created by the Bata Shoe Museum.
Permanent Exhibition: All About Shoes
The museum's main exhibition, All About Shoes, takes you on a journey through the history of footwear. It has interactive displays that show how important shoes have been in different cultures. You can also see how shoe-making has changed over time. There are even mini scenes showing shoe workshops from the past, with videos and text to explain them.
This exhibit has three main parts: Behind the Scenes: A Glimpse into Artifact Storage, Fashion Afoot, and What's Their Line.
- Fashion Afoot looks at how fashion shoes developed in the 20th century. It shows how shoes became a big part of fashion.
- What's Their Line? displays special shoes made for specific purposes. This includes French clogs used for crushing chestnuts and sumo wrestler's geta (wooden sandals).
- Behind the Scenes is where you can see many shoes and other items from the museum's collection.
The exhibits are designed so you can see the shoes up close. There are also black and white images of people and places to show how the shoes were used in history. The lighting is dim to protect the old shoes from damage. Shoes are usually displayed on low wooden platforms.
Some of the smallest shoes on display are tiny 3-inch (7.6 cm) Chinese shoes. These were made for women who had their feet bound. The exhibit also has a plaster copy of the oldest known human-like footprint. It's from Laetoli, Tanzania, and is 3.7 million years old!
Temporary Exhibitions
The museum often hosts new and exciting temporary shows in its other galleries. When the museum first opened in May 1995, it had three temporary exhibits. One was The Gentle Step, which showed how women's shoes changed in the 19th century as women's roles changed. Another was One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, which featured shoes in children's books. And Inuit Boots: A Woman's Art focused on how Inuit people make mukluks (soft boots).
Here are some examples of temporary exhibitions the museum has hosted:
- Inuit Boots: A Women's Art (1995–1996)
- Shoe Dreams: Designs by Andrea Pfister (1996–1997)
- Dance! – Minuet to Disco (1997–1999)
- Little Feats: A Celebration of Children's Shoes (1998–1999)
- Japanese Footgear: Walking the Path of Innovation (1999–2000)
- Every Step a Lotus: Shoes in the Lives of Chinese Women from Late Imperial China (2001)
- Heights of Fashion: A History of the Elevated Foot (2001)
- The Perfect Pair: Wedding Shoe Stories (2002–2004)
- Icons of Elegance: Influential Shoe Designers of the 20th century (2005–2007)
- The Charm of Rococo: Femininity and Footwear of the 18th century (2006–2008)
- On Pointe: The Rise of the Ballet Shoe (2008–2009)
- Standing Tall: The Curious History of Men in Heels (2015)
- Manolo Blahnik: The Art of Shoes (2018)
- Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks (2023)
- Obsessed: How Shoes Became Objects of Desire (2023)
- In Bloom: Flowers & Footwear (2023)
The Permanent Collection
As of April 2018, the museum's permanent collection has more than 13,000 shoes and related items. Some of these items are 4,500 years old! This makes it the largest and most complete collection of footwear in the world.
The collection was first meant to be a "working collection" for the Bata family. They wanted to learn shoe-making techniques from different cultures. But later, Sonja Bata decided to expand it to be a historical and cultural collection. She started collecting shoes from local groups where Bata factories were replacing traditional footwear. She wanted to save and document these older shoe styles. Today, the museum gets new items for its collection from auctions, donations, field work, and private sellers. The museum works to preserve shoes, meaning they prevent them from getting worse, but they don't try to make them look brand new or replace missing parts. This is because they believe worn shoes have important cultural meaning.
The collection is organized by different cultures and regions. This includes shoes from Africa, China, India, Japan, Korea, Latin America, the Middle East, and Indigenous North America. Shoes from First Nations and northern Canada make up a large part of the collection. Only about four percent of the museum's collection is on display at any time. The rest are kept safely in two underground storage vaults. Some "stored items" are also placed in clear cases in public areas of the museum, so visitors can still see them.
The oldest European shoes in the museum are a pair of sandals worn by a shepherd in the Tyrolian Alps about 5,200 years ago. The oldest shoes from the Americas are believed to be an Anasazi sandal made from yucca fibers. The museum also has shoes worn by many famous people! These include Queen Victoria, Napoleon, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Madonna, Elton John, and Pierre Trudeau.
Research and Programs
The Bata Shoe Museum does and supports research to understand the role of footwear in culture and society. The Bata Shoe Museum Foundation has helped fund trips to collect and study shoes in Asia, Europe, and cold regions where old traditions are changing fast. The museum also publishes academic papers. The museum works with other organizations like the Canadian Museums Association.
The museum hosts talks, performances, and social events. These often focus on different cultures or communities. Events help show the personal stories or cultural background behind how shoes were made. Every November, the museum holds an annual lecture series called The Founder's Lecture. This public event features a well-known thinker who talks about culture and society. The museum also invites shoemakers from around the world to show how they make shoes. This helps keep traditional shoe-making skills alive.
Outreach Programs
In 2018, almost 9,000 students visited the museum for school trips. The museum also organizes fun, themed activities for families. Every year, the museum holds a "Warm the Sole Sock Drive" fundraiser. It starts on World Kindness Day and collects socks to donate to a local charity. The museum also has a program called Step Ahead. This program, supported by the Bank of Montreal, allows children who might be at risk to visit the museum and take part in its educational programs for free. In 2018, 1,800 young people used the Step Ahead program to visit the museum.
See also
- Bata Shoes Head Office
- List of museums in Toronto
Images for kids
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The official coat of arms of the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation. The motto is "One Step at a Time."
