WELCOME TO OUR KNOWLEDGE CENTER
Wondering what fruit leather feels like? Or python skin? Touch all materials - old and trendy - that belong to the shoe industry, browse through magazines and books, search for - often unique - footage or attend our lectures. In the Knowledge Center of the Shoe Quarter you can do it all. You'll find a library and media center, an educational center, an ever-expanding materials closet and our compact auditorium. Pupils can go here for their essays or lectures, legal advisors research trademark law, archaeologists and historians dig deeper into the past, and fashion students and makers find inspiration here.
AUDITORIUM
The auditorium seats 30 people. You can go there for lectures and presentations, both by professionals and students, for example at the completion of a school assignment.
Special are the seat cushions that were designed by students of MBO SINTLUCAS in Boxtel training Creative Craftsman Leather. We are open to more such collaborations, both with education and business.
In the auditorium, watch films that accompany the exhibitions or are from our historic film collection. The offerings change regularly.
Companies and schools regularly reserve the auditorium for their own presentations. This is also possible outside regular opening hours.
THE MATERIALS CABINET
The materials cabinet is there for everyone: visitors, schoolchildren, students, artists, companies, designers. All materials may be studied. Not only with the eyes, but also with the hands. And because you can touch everything, the cabinet is also an experience in itself for children. They can touch a real shark, a cow's stomach or an "ordinary" piece of leather. There are also crafting guides for all ages. Thanks to the materials cabinet you can find extra depth to the stories from our exhibitions.
School classes are first introduced to the materials cabinet by showing and feeling some special pieces, including a sheet of a python. Middle and high school students can independently research the materials.Â
Designers and artists delve into old methods of making shoes using the materials cabinet and often try to use these techniques in a different way in their work.
The cabinet consists of three themes:
Developing materials
With various types of leather, also from surprising animals; a toad skin, chicken leg, the skin of salmon or a shark... Alternatives to leather are also discussed, such as bio-based materials, plastics and textiles.
Editing materials
Discover here the finishing possibilities of leather. For example, to give the tanned leather a different look. Think of varnishes, printing and embroidery.
Materials processing
What are the parts of a shoe made of? For example, the heels, soles and shaft parts. Study cross-sections of shoes or historical production methods.
TASTING BOXES
Young visitors get to work with sample boxes. This way they discover how to work with different types of materials. By feeling and experimenting, they fathom the properties. Furthermore, they try out simple techniques.
Each box contains the necessary materials and a brief instruction manual. Choose from the following themes:
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DIY KITS
You can also buy DIY kits with instructions in our store. Make your own leather bracelet, braided keychain or friendship doll. Do It Yourself in the knowledge center or take them home! Tools are not required.
BIBLIOTHEEK
Admission to the library is included in the museum ticket.
Naturally, the common thread of our collection is the history of shoe fashion, leather and shoe industry, technology and manufacturing methods, tanning and leather processing, leather alternatives and related topics. The archive section houses a wealth of historical professional literature, trade journals, (digital) documentation material and audiovisual media.
LIBRARY HOUSE RULES
VISITING ADDRESS
RAADHUISPLEIN 1
5141 KG WAALWIJK
+31 (0) 416 33 27 38
INFO@SCHOENENKWARTIER.NL
PARKING
TAXANDRIAWEG 4
5141 PA WAALWIJK
OPENING HOURS
DI - Fri 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Za, Sun & Feast Days 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
