5. Looking Back to Look Forward: Lessons from the Bata Shoe Museum with Elizabeth Semmelhack

The second episode in our three-part series on footwear histories and archives features Dr Emily Brayshaw in conversation with Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto. From the museum's founding vision to virtual footwear and sustainability, Elizabeth reveals how a world-class collection can simultaneously serve designers, researchers, and communities. And why material objects matter more, not less, in an increasingly digital world.Credits:Interviewee: Elizabeth Semmelhack: Director and Senior Curator at the Bata Shoe MuseumInterviewer: Dr. Emily BrayshawPresenters: Dr. Alexandra Sherlock and Dr. Emily BrayshawEdited and produced by: Dr. Alexandra SherlockPhotographs: Credits in captions Chapters00:00 - Show Intro00:58 - Episode 5 Overview05:37 - How serendipity brought an art historian to footwear08:11 - Shoes as Research Method:  Reading gender, economics and fashion through what people wore11:14 - Debunking the Chopine: Why objects and cultural context must be studied together15:02 - One Woman's Collection: The founding vision of the Bata Shoe Museum and how it has evolved19:27 - Designers in the Archive: How and why designers engage with the Museum’s collections23:22 - Object and Context: The power and significance of the material object27:11 - The Worn-Out Sole: What signs of wear can reveal about bodies, lives and secondhand markets31:07 - Twenty Billion Pairs: The scale of overproduction and why most of what we make can't be kept or recycled34:38 - Shoes Without Bodies: Virtual footwear, the metaverse and what shoes might mean in digital space38:32 - Next Steps: Roman forts, cowboy boots and beadwork:  the Bata Shoe Museum’s  current and upcoming projects40:22 - Episode Reflection: Emily and Alex43:30 - Show outroShow Noteswww.footwearresearchnetwork.org