Highly anticipated new London museum the V&A East opens this spring – and tickets are now on sale

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. 

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.  

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. 

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. 

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 deep histories; of the legacies of identity and to the music that furnishes our collective and individual memories.

‘We hope that visitors will emerge with a broader appreciation of Black British music makers, the enormous influence of Black musicality - internationally and domestically - and the legacy of the influence of the African diaspora.’

The exhibition will also mark the launch of a brand new festival that will take place each summer in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, bringing together the area’s cultural institutions, which include the London College of Fashion, the BBC Music Studios, Sadler’s Wells East and UCL East.

Tickets for The Music is Black: A British Story, which runs from April 18 2026 to January 3 2027 are on sale from £22.50 here (£10 for students and anyone under 26). 

Explore all of the best exhibitions in London right now here. 

Plus: the best new things to do in London in 2026.

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