Join architectural historian Emma Gilleece for her presentation ‘Form, Function and Footwear: State Ambition and the Industrial Modernism of Kilkenny’, followed by a factory tour of Padmore & Barnes. This event responds to artist Pauline O’Connell’s artwork From Hide to Heel, a socially engaged public art film project that explores and celebrates the intertwined industrial, agricultural, and craft histories through the story of a single, everyday object – the shoe.
Tracing a journey from raw animal hide to finished footwear, the project brings together local histories of farming, tanning, and shoemaking, connecting Kilkenny City, County and region through a collaborative and participatory artistic process. The project is rooted in two historically linked sites in Kilkenny city: Padmore & Barnes, ‘The Boot Factory’ on Wolfe Tone Street and the former neighbouring Cattle Mart on Barrack Street. Together, these sites anchor a shared story of labour, industrial production, and skilled handcraft, revealing how local lives were shaped by global systems of trade, materials, and movement.
From Hide to Heel invites audiences to reflect on the relationship between past and present, labour and land, people and place. The project aims to deepen public understanding of Kilkenny’s living heritage while highlighting the importance of safeguarding social history, cultural and environmental knowledge.
From Hide to Heel creates space for shared storytelling. We encourage audiences to take part by contributing personal stories, shared memories, and family experiences, helping to build a collective community dialogue around the work.
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Emma Gilleece is a building conservationist and architectural historian. She has a series on Irish early-mid twentieth-century structures called 100 Buildings on RTÉ Culture.
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From Hide to Heel (2025 – 2027) by visual artist Pauline O’Connell is a Public Arts project commissioned by Kilkenny County Council for their 2024 – 2027 programme and is supported by The Arts Council of Ireland and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This event will be recorded.
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Padmore & Barnes is fully wheelchair accessible. If anyone has any further access needs for this event, please don't hesitate to get in touch - email: fromhidetoheel@gmail.com
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