Online exhibitions: Overview

If you can't make it to the Museum to visit us in person, here's the next best thing! Our online exhibitions described below, All About Shoes, On Canadian Ground and the Bata Shoe Museum International Shoe Design Competition will take you to all four corners of the world!

All About Shoes

Visit this exhibition by following this link to go to the All About Shoes site.

This online exhibition features stories and artifacts, based on the Museum's existing collection, that focus on the footwear traditions of Aboriginal groups and Canada's multicultural communities. With a touch of a finger, global audiences are now able to access artifacts from some of the Museum's most exciting exhibitions.

With an intention to offer digital cultural content aimed at enhancing knowledge of Canadian cultural diversity, All About Shoes contains 500 images, of which 200 are in 3D, using AVT technology designed specifically for the Museum. A new technique allows the remaining 300 2D images to be 'zoomified' for extreme detail and magnification. With animation and sound introducing each section, artifacts come to life and can be manipulated and examined so that stitching, beadwork and even the most intricate embroidery can be appreciated.

Launching Summer 2008: All About Shoes Online - Phase 2

The Bata Shoe Museum is pleased to announce that another four of its exhibitions will soon be accessible to the global community with the continuation of its popular digitization project, All About Shoes. With financial assistance from the Cultural Affairs Sector of the Department of Canadian Heritage, virtual visitors will soon be able to view breathtaking artifacts from several more exhibitions: The Perfect Pair, Tradition and Innovation, Our Boots and Chronicles of Riches.

This phase of the project will include specially created teachers' resources, and will be in both official languages. Our Boots will also be translated into Inuktitut, an official language in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

This project was made possible with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy.


On Canadian Ground:
Stories of Footwear in Early Canada

Visit this exhibition by following this link to go to the On Canadian Ground site.

Hosted by the Virtual Museum of Canada, this bilingual exhibition site allows visitors to listen to audio clips, explore artifacts and learn about the various methods of footwear production used by skilled aboriginal and immigrant peoples. On Canadian Ground features the largest display of three-dimensional photography in an online exhibition to date. For the first time ever, visitors can 'handle' artifacts from the collection.

Join the Bata Shoe Museum at the Virtual Museum of Canada for a virtual walk through history!


Bata Shoe Museum International Shoe Design Competition

Visit this exhibition by following this link to go to the International Shoe Design Competition section.

The International Shoe Design Competition, held in 2007, was an arena for young talent from every corner of the world. The competition was organized in conjunction with Ryerson University and IFFTI (the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes) and was open to (post-secondary) students in all IFFTI- affiliated institutions around the world.

Entries were submitted from four different continents. The students were challenged to take a design element and push it as far as possible within the following three categories of extreme shoe design: function, elegance, or provocation (shoes which stimulate thought and shoes which shock).

The entries were judged by an international jury of footwear experts including Harold Koda, Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Christian Louboutin, shoe designer, Jeanne Beker, Host of FT and Editor-in-Chief of FQ Magazine, and Sonja Bata, Founding Chairman of the Bata Shoe Museum.

Media Information
A press release about the International Shoe Design Competition is available in the MEDIA ROOM.


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