When we visit the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, we tend to expect to see paintings and sculptures. Why not shoes? Michelle Hargrave, executive director at the KIA, talks about the upcoming exhibit, Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-edge Kicks. This national exhibition features nearly 60 state-of-the-art designs pushing the boundaries of what footwear can be. The exhibit runs from February 7 through June 7.
“We’re very excited for this exhibition to come to KIA,” Hargrave says. “It’s a groundbreaking exhibition of futuristic footwear designs that show how shoes are being radically reimagined. It brings together fashion, design, gaming, new media, architecture, and material innovation with some really rock star designers.”
Designers include Rem D. Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid, innovators Mr. Bailey and Salehe Bembury, as well as designs made in collaboration with fashion icons Rick Owens, Stella McCartney, and Yohji Yamamoto, and top gaming and innovation companies such as PlayStation, Gravity Sketch, and more.
“The exhibition will start off by grounding people in the history of shoe-making,” Hargrave says. “How we go from handcrafted footwear to mass production, and now to a future defined by digital tools and new materials. It begins by talking about how shoes were made slowly and individually—an experienced shoemaker might produce only two pairs per day—then industrialization really reshaped the field. All those made footwear more affordable but also created some enormous environmental and labor challenges.”
Additional programming for the Future Now exhibition will include Family Nights, Community Days, Film Screenings, a Silent Disco, a Book Swap, and others.
The exhibition is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Bata Shoe Museum, and curated by Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum.
To learn more, visit Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks.
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