Concrete Heritage, Rolling Archive
The story of 50 years of skateboarding, art & culture in Hyson Green
‘Concrete Heritage, Rolling Archive’ is a festival celebrating the history of skateboarding, art and culture in Hyson Green, delivered across Maples Street skatepark and New Art Exchange through a programme of free skateboard coaching sessions, creative workshops, and an open call to contribute material & memories to an interactive exhibition.
Join us at Maples Street skatepark every Monday in August from 11:00 - 12:30, for a skateboard coaching session with qualified coaches and skateboards & helmets available to borrow - open to anyone aged 7+. Then, take part in a unique 2-hour creative workshop, hosted at Maples Street skatepark, with a different artist each week - and help contribute new pieces of art to a Hyson Green heritage exhibition!
Monday 3rd August
11:00 - 12:30: Free skateboard coaching session
12:30 - 14:30: Free creative workshop - Hyson Green’s wild parakeets collage with skater/artist Tim Smith
Monday 10th August
11:00 - 12:30: Free skateboard coaching session
12:30 - 14:30: Free creative workshop - Green space planting & regeneration with GrowNotts
Monday 17th August
11:00 - 12:30: Free skateboard coaching session
12:30 - 14:30: Free creative workshop - Graffiti workshop with Natalie Coe & Simeon Hartwig
Monday 24th August
11:00 - 12:30: Free skateboard coaching session
12:30 - 14:30: Free creative workshop - TBC.
Monday 31st August
11:00 - 12:30: Free skateboard coaching session
12:30 - 14:30: Free creative workshop - Custom fingerboard design with skater/artist Ben Footitt
On your first session with Skate Nottingham, participants will be asked to register their details via a Google Form before joining - this can be done on the day, or beforehand to save time. Simply complete the form linked above with the participant’s details, and repeat as necessary for multiple participants. If you are a parent/guardian registering on behalf of a child - please ensure you enter the participant’s details, not your own. If you have attended a Skate Nottingham coaching session already this year, you don’t need to sign up again.
Interactive exhibition
A week-long exhibition will open from Thursday 20th - Wednesday 26th August at New Art Exchange, bringing together curated archival photography, video, and ephemera spanning 50 years, from the concrete bowls skated within the Hyson Green flat complex in the 1970s and 80s, through to the community-led campaign that built Maples Street skatepark, as well as the graffiti culture that has thrived there alongside skateboarding for more than 20 years. Visitors are invited to contribute their own memories, photographs, and artefacts, which will be scanned, digitised, and incorporated as the festival runs, to form a living celebration of a community and its creative culture.
Contribute your memories!
Do you have photos, video, art, ephemera, or memories of skateboarding, graffiti, and street culture in Hyson Green?
Email us: contact@skatenottingham.co.uk
Upload via our contact form: Archive
Bring stuff to the exhibition: Thurs 20th - Wed 26th August
The exhibition will take place on levels G, 1 & 2 of New Art Exchange, from the stairwell up to the Performance Space on level 2. NAE is open Tuesdays - Saturdays, 10:00 - 16:00.
If you’ve attended our Hyson Green skateboard coaching sessions, creative workshops, or visited our heritage exhibition - please take 2 minutes to give us your feedback!
Delivered in partnership with New Art Exchange as part of the Art Your Way programme.