Take a peek into our 14,000+ collection with our new blog series, From the Vault! Every other week, we’re sharing interesting stories about one of our artefacts. What is the provenance of this pair? When did they enter the BSM collection? This pair entered the collection in 2005. They were acquired for the museum by […]
Plastics Blog – Chapter 1 – Plastics in the Museum
Guest Post 2012, By Samantha Conover, plastics specialist At the end of February I began a contractproject at the Bata Shoe Museum. My job is to go through the Western Fashion collection and survey, assess and identify any and all plastic components contained within. Many people are surprised to learn how prevalent plastics are within […]
Upon Arrival: Disposition
The bank of filing cabinets holding information on every single object in the Bata Shoe Museum’s collection. So what does that mean, ‘disposition’? If you’ve been following this blog series on collections management, you know the first steps we take to bring a new item into the artefact collection. After unpacking and handling the item with […]
From the Vault: 18th century English shoes
Take a peek into our 14,000+ collection with our new blog series, From the Vault! Every week, we’re sharing interesting stories about one of our artefacts. What is the provenance of this pair? When did they enter the BSM collection? This pair of shoes dates to the early 18th century, likely 1725-40. They are possibly […]
Creating “The Great Divide”: Insight into the artefact selection process
Our Senior Curator, Elizabeth, has always said that curating is an exercise in restriction. We might have many artefacts to choose from when putting an exhibition together, but we are constrained by the physical space of the gallery, a desire not to overwhelm visitors with too many shoes, and with the goal to tell a […]
From the Vault: Korean namakshin
Take a peek into our 14,000+ collection with our new blog series, From the Vault! Every week, we’re sharing interesting stories about one of our artefacts. What is the provenance of this pair? When did they enter the BSM collection? This single Korean namakshin came into the collection in 2011. They were acquired from a […]
20 Artefacts from the Bata Shoe Musuem that aren’t shoes!
We’ve have put together a list of 20 artefacts you might not expect to find in a shoe museum. The BSM’s collection of 13,000 artefacts obviously contains a large number of shoes, however, we also collect, own and display various other items that may take you by surprise. 1) Roger Vivier Sketches The museum has […]
Upon Arrival: The Workspace
The first Collections Management blog in this series walked you through the process of a new acquisition coming into the museum and discussed how much care we take in the shipping, receiving and unpacking of new acquisitions. Now that the item is in the building and it is being tracked through its registration number, the […]
Upon Arrival: A Series on Collections Management
Museum’s are unusual places. Unlike most attractions offering education and entertainment like movie theatres and aquariums to the public, the Bata Shoe Museum not only offers four exhibitions for visitors to explore, but behind the scenes, it also keeps a collection of over 14,000 artefacts. The collection contains footwear that has been made, used and […]
Care in Handling: Transporting Artefacts Around the World
It is a topic that you do not hear about in the public sphere, but one that museums around the world invest in each time they move art objects for the purposes of sharing with other museums. Let me walk you through the process; it is behind-the-scenes work that you might not have imagined. WANT: […]