You can now skate at the Design Museum's newly-installed pop-up ramp by Jonathan Olivares

'Skateboard' at the Design Museum (20 October 2023 - 2 June 2024) is a new exhibition charting the history of skateboard design from the 1950s to today. 

The exhibition is curated by Jonathan Olivares, who also conceived a 3.5ft mini skate ramp with an 8ft extension for the museum's spaces, in collaboration with Betongpark, among Europe’s industry leaders in skatepark design and construction. Olivares' research into the discipline's design and history is also the subject of a Phaidon book, published later in 2023.

'Skateboard' at Design Museum

The exhibition embodies the spirit of the Design Museum as a space of connection through design. 'We are really pleased to be unveiling the newest skateable ramp in London, and what we think might be the first mini-ramp the public can skate on inside any major UK museum,' says Design Museum director Tim Marlowe. 'This is a really dynamic and important part of our skateboard show as it speaks to the ways in which skaters have long repurposed aspects of the built environment, and poetically reinterpreted the function they were designed for.'

The exhibition comprises over 100 rare and unique boards, as well as objects, tapes, magazines and ephemera from some of the movement's most memorable moments. 'The display,' reads a note from the museum, 'shows the skateboard technical developments alongside its evolving social acceptance.' 

The exhibition was created with the support of California's Skateboarding Hall of Fame Museum, opened in 1997 as the first museum dedicated to the discipline, and Nick Halkias, a Skateboard archivist & collector whose collection includes historical skateboards and apparel.  

Displayed in chronological succession throughout the exhibition, the history of skateboard culture on show spans from 1950s sidewalk surfing to the development of the industry in the 70s up to the admission of the discipline to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Notable objects include the early home-made boards and Tony Hawk’s first ever professional model skateboard from the 1980s among others. 

'Skateboard design history is a grey area, recorded in printed and video magazines, YouTube channels, blogs, podcasts, books, Instagram posts and oral histories from those who lived it,' says Olivares. 'While skateboarding history is the incalculable sum of the hours spent by individuals skating, skateboard history is finite, limited to the vast number of skateboards that have been made. This exhibition is centred around a single question: how did the skateboard get to be the way it is?'

Adds Marlowe: 'With the global skate community today reaching 85 million, and with the sport’s inclusion in Paris 2024 likely to push that number even higher, now is the perfect time to be hosting this exhibition at the world’s leading museum for contemporary design. This is a story of design, performance and communities evolving together.'

'Skateboard' is on view at the Design Museum from 20 October 2023 to 2 June 2024

Exhibition ticket holders who have some prior experience of skateboarding are invited to book a free slot to be able to skate on the ramp as part of their visit. There will be two open skate slots available every day, with three on Saturdays. 

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High St
London W8 6AG

designmuseum.org