In 2023 we got the shiny £13m revamp of the Young V&A, in 2025 we got the sprawling treasure trove that is the V&A East Storehouse and in 2026 we’re getting its long-awaited sister venue, the V&A East.Â
The 7,000 square metre V&A East Museum will open on Saturday April 18. And tickets are now available for its inaugural exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story. Â
The landmark show will feature more than 200 objects exploring the impact of Black artistry on British music, culture and beyond from 1900 all the way to present day. Split into four acts, it’ll start by tracing the origins of Black music, then explore how Black music flourished during the war, migration and technological change of the early twentieth century, then focus on how Black British genres like lovers rock, 2 tone, Brit funk and grime began to emerge before spotlighting the Black British music of today and what it’ll look like in the future.Â
Photograph: Sam WhiteSam White, Skepta and Jammer, Run the Road, Fabric, 2005
There’ll be artefacts like Winifred Atwell’s piano, Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, the Nintendo that Jme used in his first music experiments, newly acquired photographs of Kemistry and Storm, Mis-Teeq, and Skepta, and iconic pieces of clothing worn by the likes of Little Simz, Dame Shirley Bassey, Skin and Sade.Â
Jacqueline Springer, the curator of the exhibition and the museum’s curator of Africa and diaspora performance, said: ‘This exhibition speaks to modernity and long...