Shoe drive runs February 4 to March 29, inspired by Museum’s Winter Exhibition

 

PALM BEACH, FL - The Flagler’s Spirit team at the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum is partnering with Shoes2You to host a shoe drive in conjunction with the Museum’s winter exhibition, Walk This Way: Historic Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection. The “Flagler’s Spirit Shoe Drive” will be collecting new and gently used footwear for adults and children in all sizes during regular admission hours from February 4 through March 29, 2020, at the Museum. Those wishing to drop off donations may do so at the Museum’s entrance kiosk, adjacent to the parking lot. An admission fee is not required.

Staff members at the Museum came together to form Flagler’s Spirit in 2016 as a way to give back to the local community, taking inspiration from Henry Flagler’s many examples of generosity to the communities he developed along Florida’s eastern seaboard. Flagler provided land, buildings and financial support to schools, places of worship, libraries, hospitals, agricultural operations and more during his lifetime. Today, the Flagler’s Spirit team focuses on providing opportunities for children and adults, who may not otherwise have them, to visit Whitehall and experience it in meaningful ways. The team also partners with local charitable organizations, most recently collecting items from the public to donate to Dress for Success Palm Beaches.

Shoes2You also has local ties. Delray Beach teenager Joseph Rubsamen was inspired to collect shoes after visiting poverty stricken villages in Nicaragua, holding his first shoe drive at his school in 2013. That shoe drive was so successful that Shoes2You, Inc. was formed as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in 2014, and today has provided over 14,000 shoes to people around the world, including Bali, Haiti, Kenya, and Nicaragua. Shoes2You also partners with many organizations in Palm Beach County to provide footwear to students and adults in need. “Hosting a shoe drive concurrently with the Walk This Way exhibit featuring historic shoes is a perfect pairing. We are excited to partner with Joseph and Shoes2You in February and March, and we look forward to the enthusiastic participation of our visitors and community to help us make an impact locally and around the world,” said Erin Manning, Executive Director of the Flagler Museum.

The Museum’s winter exhibition, Walk This Way, specifically explores how shoes have transcended their utilitarian purpose to become representations of culture — coveted as objects of desire, designed with artistic consideration, and expressing complicated meanings of femininity, power and aspiration for women and men alike. Organized by the New-York Historical Society, the exhibit features 100 pairs of shoes from iconic designer Stuart Weitzman’s extensive private collection. Walk This Way is open through May 10, 2020 in the Museum’s second floor gallery and is free with Museum admission.

The exhibition is funded in part by Northern Trust, Templeton & Company, and The Palm Beach Post, and is sponsored in part by Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, the Tourist Development Council, the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

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The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum

When it was completed in 1902, Whitehall, Henry Flagler’s Gilded Age estate in Palm Beach, was hailed by the New York Herald as “more wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world.” Today, Whitehall is a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as the Flagler Museum, featuring guided tours, changing exhibits, and special programs. The Museum is located at One Whitehall Way, Palm Beach, FL 33480.

The Museum is open from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and noon until 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $18 for adults, $10 for youth ages 13-17, $3 for children ages 6-12, and children under six are free. Guided tours, audio tours, printed self-guide brochures and the Flagler Museum Audio Tour app are all complimentary with Museum admission. Audio tours and self guide brochures are available in English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese.

For more information, please call the Flagler Museum at (561) 655-2833 or visit www.flaglermuseum.us.


CONTACT:
Lauren Perry, Public Affairs Director
Ph: (561) 655-2833 ext. 13
E: publicaffairsdirector@flaglermuseum.us