Faculty of Art

Integrated Media

Emily Honderich

Community Event at The Bata Shoe Museum

OCAD disability art student education at the Bata Shoe Museum. A community event I would like to see is a class on knitting as an art form and an outlet for people with mental health issues. Other OCAD U art students with disabilities could assist by demonstrating, doing sign language, and providing verbal descriptions for the blind, hard of hearing, or disabled.https://batashoemuseum.ca/The Bata Shoe Museum is a shoe museum in Toronto, Ontario, that displays over a thousand shoes and artifacts chosen from a collection of over 15000 objects. The museum is located in architect Raymond Moriani's award-winning building in downtown Toronto. Their exhibits range from Chinese bound foot shoes to Egyptian sandals, Chesnut clogs, and platform shoes. Sonya Bata founded the museum. Their shoes mark shifts in society's attitudes and values. It opened in May 1995. Its mission is to communicate footwear's role in shaping humanity's cultural and social life. It is also a centre for footwear research that sponsors research in the field, publishes research findings and promotes education. Their permanent collection houses artifacts from virtually every culture in the world.

“These research notes show the kind of activity the Bata Shoe Museum offers and suggest two possibilities for what I could lead based on their models.I will give connection engagements which teach the individual students about their race, disability, indigenous history, recycling, upcycling, and materialistic society. This project represents OCAD University's art students with a leading disability using an art activity such as shoe painting. This activity teaches the student about their disability and showcases diversity in their community and what they can do to best help. The museum has four galleries that celebrate shoes' style, development, and function. Their history is represented in 4500 years, reflected in their permanent exhibition. My Community project idea is to design an event for OCAD University disability students to raise civic awareness. This event will discuss the work process from civic engagement to connection. This event teaches about race (and includes a conversation with Kimberly J about race and clothes). This program also teaches about disability as a children's art activity facilitated by OCAD University art students with disabilities. This process leads the student to a materialistic society through the Obsessed: Shoe Exhibit. It is an exhibit of shoes as objects of desire, not just function. I can lead a class on knitting as an art form and an outlet for mental health. The project would be to knit a pair of tube socks. I can teach the basic skills of how to incorporate, how to purl, how to cast on and cast off, as well as go through how knitting and other similar handcrafts (crochet) are great ways to quiet the mind, to feel calm, and to manage stress and anxiety. These skills of mindfulness and handicraft are skills that the community could use in their daily practice. Other OCAD U students can help the participants if they hearing impaired or are visually, or mobility disabled. Sources:Bata Shoe Museum - www.batashoemueum.caIllustrations by Emily Honderich”