by Alison McGonagle
photos courtesy Soles of Haverhill

Haverhill artists and businesses collaborated to show some sole during the city’s months-long Shoelabration, a series of events that benefited several local nonprofit organizations. Beginning in June of 2009, large-scale shoe sculptures sprang up all over the city that once was the shoe manufacturing capital of the world.

The sculptures began as fiberglass forms roughly the size of a compact car. They were shaped like the old-fashioned, buttoned-up boots that once were produced in Haverhill. When delivered to the artists, the forms were white and image free. Paint, photographs, mirrors and other embellishments were added to create pieces of public art.

A Weitzman Family Affair by Stuart, Jane, Rachel Weitzman & artist Elizabeth Persing

Ya Gotta Haverhill by artist Rob Sardella

The Pursuit of Fashion by the Nordstrom Design Crew

Participating Haverhill businesses paired with area artists to conceptualize designs for the shoes. Behind the scenes, the Soles of Haverhill Committee (a subcommittee of the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce), the Haverhill Cultural Council and Team Haverhill matched each shoe with a nonprofit organization that eventually would benefit from the sculpture’s sale at auction.

Shoelabration drew some celebrity participation. World-famous shoe and handbag designer Stuart Weitzman, a Haverhill native, lent his artistic expertise and also came to the city with his wife to unveil his sculpture at the new Hamel Mill Lofts apartment complex. The lofts are located just a block away from where Weitzman’s father owned Mr. Seymour’s Shoes.

In addition to fetes worthy of famous faces, the Soles of Haverhill team also threw a “Whole Lot of Sole” cocktail reception at The Buttonwoods Museum a week before the auction. The party featured all 14 shoes on display for the first time, as well as historic artifacts connected to the city’s storied past. In the end, though, it was all about the auction, and in late October the 14 shoes were at the Bradford Country Club, where “auctioneer extraordinaire” Tim Milks of Sevierville, Tenn., joined 250 guests for an evening of fine dining and entertainment.

Before the auction, the Soles of Haverhill Committee gave all businesses the chance to buy back their shoes for $5,000, and the Haverhill Teachers Credit Union took advantage of the opportunity.
Later, Pentucket Bank bid on and won the whimsical, nature-themed shoe that featured and benefited Winnekenni Castle. The shoe, “Pentucket Place By The Winding River,” had been outside the bank’s Merrimack Street branch during the summer, and is now on display indoors at the same location. The Haverhill Fire Department Credit Union was the highest bidder for a self-sponsored shoe, and it now sits at the credit union’s location on Kenoza Avenue.

An anonymous bidder purchased “A Vibrant Sole,” the funky, colorful and geometric sculpture that’s on display outside Sacred Hearts School in Bradford, where it had been displayed beginning in June.
Other shoes were purchased by miscellaneous bidders, and though some specifics still need to be worked out, all but one have pledged to proudly “shoecase” the public art within the city that inspired it.

Shoetown by artist Rob Sardella

Pentucket, Place by the Winding River: by artist Elizabeth Persing

A Vibrant Sole by artist Jeff Grassie

The fast-paced auction brought in nearly $47,000 for community nonprofits. The beneficiary that profited most was the Winnekenni Foundation, an organization dedicated to the maintenance, preservation and operation of Haverhill’s Winnekenni Castle. Winnekenni Foundation President Grace Marcoux said the foundation benefits not only from the money raised, but also from the image of the shoe sculpture, which appears on more than 5,000 postcards that were mailed worldwide, as well as on T-shirts, posters, flyers and brochures. Marcoux noted the free international publicity with thanks. “We are incredibly appreciative to the Shoelabration for permitting the Winnekenni Foundation to participate in the project,” Marcoux said. She also gave special thanks to Pentucket Bank for purchasing the shoe at auction.

Sixty-percent of winning bids benefited the local nonprofits, with the rest going to the sponsors, who are planning similar events in the future.

“All the proceeds [after benefitting the designated nonprofits and paying artists] will go back to the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce Community Arts and Education Foundation, which is a nonprofit account set up by the chamber to fund various community events, scholarships and public art programs,” said Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce Vice President Leanne M. Eastman. “The foundation has been in existence for over 20 years, and within the last few has been acting as the fiscal agent for all of Team Haverhill's projects, such as the mural project in downtown, the recycling trial with the city, and playground restoration projects. This is how the chamber became the major sponsor of the Soles of Haverhill project.

“The shoes really did become an enormous economic tool for the city,” Eastman added. Haverhill residents reported seeing tourists posing for photos with the shoes or asking for directions from one to another. On the heels of Shoelabration, restaurants in the city and the weekly farmers market were noticeably busier than usual in 2009.

While the paint has dried and the parties are over, Shoelabration remains a successful part of a larger community history project called “Shoes and the Soul of Haverhill,” which aims to examine the longer-term impact of the shoe industry on the city’s identity.

Shoelabrating Haverhill’s industrial past also helped put a spotlight on the city’s downtown district, including “restaurant row,” Wingate Street, which is known as “the avenue of the arts” for its many studios and galleries, the new river walk along the Merrimack, and several new apartment and condominium projects. Construction of a parking deck to support the growing number of visitors is scheduled for later this year.

For more information visit Soles of Haverhill.