Skating has been a means of transportation and recreation in Europe since the XIth century. Over the ensuing millennium or more, skating has become a popular activity which – either as a practice, or as a spectator sport – has infiltrated all levels of society. Among all the sports which have become part of the Canadian cultural landscape, skating occupies a dominant place.

The primary theme behind Lace Up is the integration and diffusion of skating sports throughout Canadian society. The goal of this exhibition is not to examine the individual histories of figure skating, speed skating, or hockey, but rather to approach skating as a whole, examining its evolution, its transformation, and its establishment in Canada.

The exhibition is divided into two historical periods. The first looks at skating's European origins and the establishment of skating activities in Canada to 1850. The second period, which covers 1850 to the present day, demonstrates how skating in Canada has become a sociocultural element, integrated into the very fabric of Canadian society.

The exhibition will feature:

• 60 different types of skates, showcasing their evolution from early skates made of bone to the hightech skates of today;
  
• The skates of the American figure-skating champion Jackson Haines — who came to Montreal in 1864 and enjoyed the adulation of thousands — and the skates worn by Canadian speedskating
  champion Gaétan Boucher, when he took Gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo;
  
• Sixteenth-century Flemish paintings;
  
• Historical photographs, and programmes from various skating events, videos, audio recording, etc;
  
• Elegant skating costumes from the nineteenth century.