More than 130 skateboards line the halls of the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC) in Boca Raton, covered in paint, graphics and marker—a simple project that exploded in just a matter of weeks to become Lynn University’s first skateboard deck art contest.
“All Hands on Deck” recently opened during the Lynn University Art Show, in a hallway space reserved for artwork by students and professors, including the school’s NFT Museum.
Conceived by College of Communications and Design Dean Cesar Santalo, an artist and a former TV reporter, he wanted to push students to try something new and handed out 25 blank skateboard decks. Graphic design artists were told to do whatever they wanted with it—and soon the project spread to more students, including at Boca West High School, Boca Raton Christian School, Spanish River High School, Dreyfoos School of the Arts, and youth from HANDY.
“There’s something special that happened when I would give a student a skateboard,” Santalo said. “They went from this shy student into this different, confident, outgoing individual.”
In four weeks, more than 130 skateboards were handed out and hung on the walls at BRiC for a competition judged by skateboarding icon, author and motivational speaker Brandon Novak, who skated under Tony Hawk and appeared in “Viva La Bam” and “Jackass.” Splitting his time between Boca Raton and Philadelphia, he made a special trip for the competition.
While a conversation on AI in art was going on, Novak walked the halls and inspected the skateboards, taking in each piece covered in designs inspired by graffiti art, comics, animals, and abstract imagery delving deep into the students’ psyche. He joked it was “the worst job I’ve ever had, to pick first place out of all that amazing art.”
Taking the stage, he handed out awards in high school and college categories, with the winner going to Amanda Topple for her piece, “Confinement”—one he said “stole the show.”
With two skateboards crossed over one another, Topple painted a crying blue and white face with four hands, pierced by the screws on the skateboard deck. It was the out-of-the-box thinking that drew in Novak.
“It didn’t conform with what the original assignment was, which was to just paint a skateboard,” he explained. “As usual, a skateboarder takes it a step further, so now a skateboard turns into two skateboards and turns into a cross, which then perfectly aligns with this image in the middle and it had to be done [perfectly]. So ultimately, it was an imperfect, perfect piece of art which I ultimately think skateboarding is.”
With such a strong start, this isn’t the end for this project—Santalo is already thinking about next year.
“We want to make it the largest skateboarding design competition in the southeastern United States,” he said.
Visit Boca magazine’s Instagram page to see a reel of the exhibit.
Check out “All Hands on Deck” at 4950 Communications Drive at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC), which will be on display for the next year.
