The museum' motto is one step at a time. That is how I found it, one step at a time. I moved from writing a blog on my dressofthedayangela.blogspot to reading about Siebel shoes, then the shoe museum in Germany, then the listing of shoe museums worldwide and then Bata shoe museum in Canada. What I remember vividly from the Bata Shoe Museum website is not about shoes but about the Bata wife who took a collection of hundreds of shoes her family collected to make a museum.
Running The Museum
Her name was Sonja and she married into the Bata family in 1946. That would put her into her nineties today if she married at the age of 15 to 25.
She resisted attempts to make it a government organization. Government control would have earned funding, which she did not need.
Instead, she wanted control over everything including where it was to be built, and the design of the building. And no doubt which shoe companies were featured.
All fascinating stuff, politics, people in conflict, all with their own agenda, which you don't always think about when seeing a museum which is privately owned or not. I usually think, they gave their family home, or museum, to the people of the city. That was generous of them. A chance for the place to be free or subsidized. Open to all. In perpetuity.
On the other hand, I know that many museums are left more items than they can display. Paintings, sculpture, furniture, much more, sits in storage never seen nor enjoyed by anybody. At least if a painting were hung on the wall of a home or a restaurant or town hall, a few people would see it.
The Building's Entrance
At first glance, the building looked rather dull, a large white oblong, with a pleasing coloured central design, nothing to do with shoes. However, it is actually meant to look like the shape of a shoe box. The roof is supposed to be tilted like the lid of a shoe box. The building is three storeys high, so you would not necessarily notice the roof and general shape from ground level. I didn't register that from the photo, until I read the Wikipedia account more carefully.
However, a close of of the entrance shows the glass doorway. Looking back at the over all view, I can see that when you approach on foot it looks completely different.
What's Displayed Inside?
The world's largest collection of footwear. 13,000 shoes. Dating back more than 4,000 years.
Not all made by Bata. They weren't around 4,000 years ago.
I am more interested in contemporary shoes which I might buy and wear, once an idea becomes popular and affordable. So I can see that they have to select the most interesting items to display or send away on travelling exhibitions. Especially with Covid-19, even more so, the travel wheel and affordability wheel has swung around and once again many people cannot travel. Museums and exhibitions display items from around the world.
The history of the company reveals much more of general interest. The garden city. The co-op idea. The modern architecture.
The online shops sells books on shoes, a boot deodorizer, a colouring book, a pack of playing cards featuring shoes, a tote bag with a shoe pattern, shoe wipes, and a high heel shoe magnet with the words Pumped up!
Where Is It
Toronto
Ontario
Canada
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bata_Shoe_Museum
About the Author
About the author of this travel blog
Angela Lansbury is British born and bred but has also lived in the USA, Spain and Spingapore and visited countries around the worl
She is a semi-retired teacher of English language and literature and a member of Toastmasters International and five clubs, Harrovians in the UK, three in Singapore (BHA and TCA and Senja-Cashew), a club coach for Nee Soon South, and a member of online only club, Singapore Online Dynamic. To find a club go to Toastmasters International Find a club or look on Facebook. BHA meets the first Wednesday evening each month, login 6.45 for 7 pm start Singapore time (SGT), which is noon in London UK, during British summer time, until clocks go back the last Sunday in October when the UK reverts to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
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