Saturday 25th April 2026
Location: Padmore & Barnes of KilkennyKilkenny, Kilkenny
Overview
Join Emma Gilleece for her presentation ‘Form, Function & Footwear: State Ambition & the Industrial Modernism of Kilkenny,’ & factory tour.

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.
Organisers Website

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