Olympia and the Design Museum launch year-long cultural partnership

Olympia has announced a 12-month partnership with the Design Museum, bringing a programme of free cultural activations to the West London destination across 2026 and 2027. Announced on 24 September, the collaboration draws on the museum's exhibitions and creative programme, positioning the 140-year-old site as one of the capital's newest cultural hubs.

NIGO: From Japan with Love digital representation on the Canvas at Olympia - photographer Josh Bratt

The partnership opens with a monumental digital presentation celebrating Japanese designer and creative director NIGO, staged on Olympia's new 83-metre-long, eight-metre-high screen, the Canvas, on Emberton Walk. Created with global experience design studio Pixel Artworks, the display translates the themes and visual language of NIGO: From Japan with Love into a large-scale public work, the first time the exhibition has travelled beyond the museum's walls. It is free to view until 4 October, as the show enters its final days at the Design Museum.

The exhibition is the first retrospective dedicated to NIGO, founder of A Bathing Ape and HUMAN MADE and the first Japanese artistic director of KENZO since Kenzo Takada himself. The Canvas commission traces the cultural threads running through his career across fashion, music, design and popular culture, from Japanese craft and streetwear to vintage Americana and contemporary luxury. Olympia CEO Michael Volkert described the partnership as central to a vision of "making world-class culture accessible to everyone who spends time at Olympia", adding that culture should be woven into the experience of visiting rather than treated as an add-on.

Es Devlin photographed Es Devlin: Other Worlds at the Design Museum. Photo credit Luke Hayes.

Further activations will follow throughout the year, including work drawn from Es Devlin: Other Worlds, the first European retrospective of the British artist and designer's 30-year practice, running at the Design Museum from 2 October 2026 to 4 April 2027. Visitors to the Canvas can also explore Olympia's wider transformation, which now includes the British Airways ARC music venue, the Hyatt Regency London Olympia, bars and restaurants beneath the Canopy rooftop terrace, the all-day restaurant Idalia and the historic Pillar Hall.

For more information, visit olympia.co.uk