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On October 15, the Hat Museum inaugurated the exhibition "Please, don’t eat Maor Zabar’s hats".

Maor Zabar is an Israeli hat designer whose pieces stand out for their originality and eccentricity and whose main source of inspiration is his life story and personal experience as a fashion designer and costume designer for the theatre.

Each hat, made of felt, natural linen or delicate silks, is carefully crafted, sewn and artistically painted by hand to give rise to what Maor Zabar calls "Perfect Creation".

Insects, flowers, food, toys or popular stories are just a few of his collections and each one takes on broad styles and facets ranging from realism to parody.

This exhibition will be open until March 31, 2018.

The Portuguese Museology Association (APOM) award ceremony took place yesterday, with 132 different Portuguese museums nominated, and where the Shoe Museum was distinguished with three important awards, of which we are extremely proud:

• INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY AWARD, which recognized the Shoe Museum as the most innovative and creative in all areas of activity, from research to incorporation, from inventory to conservation, from the exhibition to the educational service, from shop products to communication;

• Management and Multimedia Application Award, regarding the quality of the multimedia products used in our exhibitions that help contextualize the objects, promoting and facilitating knowledge;

• INCORPORATION AWARD, which recognized the integration of cultural goods in the museum collection, more particularly the incorporation of the LUSOLINDO shoe collection.

In addition, the Shoe Museum was also distinguished with the HONOURABLE MENTION FOR BEST MUSEUM OF THE YEAR, being recognized as an institution that preserves collections representative of local, regional or national identity, assisting in the advancement of knowledge in museology, as well as contributing to the social development and environmental balance and promoting education and training to different social groups, thus fulfilling all its museological functions.

These awards and this honourable mention represent the recognition of the Shoe Museum’s quality, as a result of the unequivocal bet by the City of S. João da Madeira in the preservation of its heritage, and also the hard work, with great technical and scientific quality, of its staff and all who collaborated with the Shoe Museum, from donors to institutional partners.

We would like to give a special word of thanks to designer João Borges who collaborated with the Shoe Museum in the Museography Project, as well as Mr. Armando Oliveira who represented the Lusolindo Collection, and GOFOX and EDIGMA who created the Museum’s multimedia applications.

To the Portuguese Museology Association, our deepest gratitude for these important awards, which bestow upon us an even greater responsibility in the Portuguese museological landscape, one that we endeavour to honour in earnest every day, with commitment and dedication.

To the winner for Best Museum of the Year, the Money Museum, and all the other nominees and prize-winners, our warmest congratulations!

Lastly, a special mention for collectors António Saint-Silvestre and Richard Treger who won the COLLECTOR AWARD, and also for collectors Norlinda and José Lima who were distinguished with an HONOURABLE MENTION in the same category. Both collections are deposited at the S. João da Madeira Art Museum.

The Shoe Museum and the Hat Museum present, in 2017, four success stories. More than mere ’fairy tales’ these are the true stories of young designers whose talent and entrepreneurial ability have taken their creations to travel the world, whether in the head and feet of celebrities or in the exhibition halls of several museums.

We speak of ANASTASIA RADEVICH (Canada), PABLO AND MAYAYA (Spain), KOBI LEVI and MAOR ZABAR (both from Israel).

Under the theme "In a fairy tale. From head to toe ", this program cycle will bring to S. João da Madeira several cultural and pedagogical activities that include temporary exhibitions of international artists and designers, workshops, seminars or round tables, creative workshops, thematic visits, meetings with artists, amongst others, which aim to highlight the idea of "magic worlds" associated with two industries of great cultural and economic relevance in the region, hat and shoe production.

The great objective of the two museums’ programming is to highlight the creative and spectacular dimensions of these two industrial sectors, showing that art and culture, creativity and business can go hand in hand.