By Martin Banks

London’s V&A East Museum opens its doors for the first time this Saturday (18 April) as part of East Bank, the new cultural quarter in the showpiece Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The UK’s newest culture and education quarter is the single biggest investment in London’s cultural landscape since the Great Exhibition of 1851 and is expected to welcome over 1.5 million visitors a year and generate £1.5 billion for London’s economy.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Eight years ago, I set out a vision to create a new culture and education powerhouse in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and with more than £600 million investment from City Hall, I’m delighted to see East Bank roaring into life.

“The opening of V&A East Museum is a major milestone in the growing success of East Bank. It will play a big part in our capital’s world-leading cultural scene.”

Co-created with young people, creatives, and those living, working and studying in east London, the museum aims to celebrate making and “creativity’s power to bring change around the world.”

Set across a bright, spacious five-storey building designed by architects O’Donnell + Tuomey, the museum is a showcase of creativity and a celebration of east London, UK and global makers.

It includes a landmark multisensory exhibition, “The Music is Black: A British Story” – the largest ever exhibition on the impact of black British music on the UK and around the world.

Featuring over 200 objects from the V&A’s collection and important loans, at its heart it celebrates the emergence of eight distinct black British genres from 2 tone to lovers rock, Brit funk, jungle, drum & bass, trip hop, UK garage and grime.

Tracing 125 years of black British music, the exhibition brings together hidden stories of early legends and contemporary artists through objects from groundbreaking musician Winifred Atwell’s piano to Stormzy’s iconic 2019 Glastonbury vest designed by Banksy, originally conceived on the back of a napkin.

Other highlights include Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, equipment belonging to Fabio & Grooverider, including Grooverider’s first turntable, the Super Nintendo Jme used for his early music experiments, alongside fashion worn by Little Simz, Seal, Dame Shirley Bassey, Sade and Skin.

Also on show are artworks revealing the joy, resilience and importance of  black British artistry and the way in which music moves us, by Dame Sonia Boyce, Zak Ové, Sokari Douglas Camp CBE, Denzil Forrester, and specially commissioned new works by Sir Frank Bowling and LR Vandy.

The V&A has acquired over 50 photographs from the 1960s to the 2010s to its collection – many on display in the exhibition for the first time. Works include Dennis Morris’s early photographs of Bob Marley, Eddie Otchere’s evocative diptych of drum & bass pioneers DJ Kemistry and DJ Storm, Soulla Petrou’s portrait of UK garage and R&B trio, Mis-Teeq and Laura ‘Hyperfrank’ Brosnan’s print capturing Skepta’s family celebrating his 2016 Mercury Prize win.

The BBC have partnered with V&A East on the expo, providing access to archival materials and releasing a season of content across its channels and platforms inspired by the exhibition.

The content is curated at bbc.co.uk/themusicisblack and includes a new audio-visual mixtape from Shortee Blitz and Beat A Maxx. The exhibition has also inspired “The Music is Black Festival”, a series of programming, displays and performances in collaboration with East Bank partners across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and beyond in summer 2026.

V&A East Ambassador, Cat Burns, said: “Being part of the first The Music is Black: A British Story exhibition at V&A East Museum is such an exciting moment for me. The museum’s focus on creativity for change really speaks to how music and culture can inspire, challenge, and create opportunity. I’m looking forward to sharing this space and experience with everyone. It’s about celebrating art, identity, and stories that matter.”

V&A East Museum’s new free permanent “Why We Make” galleries offer a fresh look at contemporary culture through the V&A’s collections. Designed by JA_Projects in collaboration with A Practice for Everyday Life, Larry Achiampong and the V&A East Youth Collective, the galleries hold over 500 objects from the V&A’s collection spanning art, architecture, design, performance, and fashion.

Objects are brought together across different times, cultures and countries, with a design inspired by east London, to address topical issues important to our audiences – from representation, identity and wellbeing to social justice and environmental action.

Photographic works by Claude Cahun, Maud Sulter and Shadi Ghadirian are shown alongside a Renaissance self-portrait of Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola and Molly Goddard’s feminist fashion to uncover how we find our place in the world by visualising ourselves in it. Furniture by Yinka Ilori, fashion by Alexander McQueen, carnival costumes by Keith Khan, ceramics by Bisila Noha and dance by Akram Khan, come together to explore how creatives push their practice to tell powerful personal stories. Work by trailblazers, including fashion designers Vivienne Westwood, Rei Kawakubo founder of Comme des Garçons, and 18th-century Spitalfields dressmaker Anna Maria Garthwaite, join radical ballet costumes by Leigh Bowery, and fabric prints by Althea McNish, to uncover how each creative broke ground in their industries.

The galleries also showcase a series of co-produced projects created with east London-based residents, artists and creatives, drawing on the V&A’s collection, including displays by artist and designer, Sahra Hersi, and Hackney-based photographer, Tom Hunter, created in collaboration with the V&A East Youth Collective.

V&A East Museum also opens this weekend with “New Work”, a new twice yearly rotating programme of creative commissions. The inaugural edition unveils newly commissioned works by Tania Bruguera, Rene Matić, Justinien Tribillon, Carrie Mae Weems, and Laura Wilson, each responding to the theme ‘Making East London’, an exploration of the area’s histories, communities and possible futures. Further New Work commissions by Es Devlin, Lawrence Lek and Shahed Saleem are revealed at V&A East Storehouse, extending the programme across both V&A East sites.

A new temporary display, Dispersal opens, with photographs by Marion Davies and Debra Rapp, who documented the people and workplaces of east London-based labour businesses at threat of closure or relocation due to the development of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Also on show across V&A East Museum are a series of objects from the V&A’s collection by creatives including Ron Arad’s Concrete Stereo (1982), Theaster Gates’s stoneware vessel, Voulkos #1 (2021), made as part of ‘The Question of Clay’ research project when Gates was an Emeritus Fellow at the V&A, and Mawuena Kattah’s Aunty, Mum and Me Talking About My Fabric Collection (2016) tile painting.

The Mayor of London has spearheaded and funded the creation of East Bank and V&A East Museum and its director Gus Casely-Hayford said: “Over 10 years in the making, we’re delighted to open this museum, a space created with and for our audiences, including young people and east Londoners, in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

“Sister site to V&A East Storehouse, it’s part of East Bank and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic legacy. Everyone is welcome at V&A East Museum. From The Music is Black: A British Story to our Why We Make galleries, New Work commissions and live events and activities, we hope you see yourself, your stories, and experiences represented here.”

Sadiq Khan  says the museum will “celebrate creativity, creating opportunities and showing the power the arts can have.

“The inaugural exhibition, Music is Black: A British Story, fittingly celebrates the role of Black British music and the impact it has had across the globe. Following on from the successful opening of V&A East Storehouse, V&A East Museum is boosting East Bank’s cultural offering even further, helping to build a better London for everyone.”

IMAGES CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://vam.box.com/s/guuvnsk0mqc00ftntlu4nspx5wdfenf3