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<\/a><\/p>\nThe inaugural exhibition charts more than a century of Black British music and its influence in the UK and beyond. Bringing together more than 200 objects \u2014 including instruments, fashion, photographs and personal belongings of famous artists \u2014 the multi-sensory exhibition spans genres from lovers rock and Brit funk to grime and UK garage, highlighting both pioneering figures and contemporary artists.<\/p>\n
Displays range from the piano of early star Winifred Atwell to fashion worn by artists such as Little Simz and archival material from Skepta and girl band Mis-Teeq. Developed in collaboration with BBC Music, the exhibition forms part of a wider programme of performances and broadcasts celebrating Black British music across 2026.<\/p>\n
Alongside this, at the heart of the museum\u2019s permanent galleries is Why We Make, a new display exploring contemporary global culture through objects selected from the V&A\u2019s extensive collections. Developed in close partnership with V&A East\u2019s Youth Collective, the galleries examine the motivations behind creative work across time and geography.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose range from voicing dissent to building creative communities to rethinking systems,\u201d said Why We Make curator Chloe Kellow. \u201cWe want this space to be full of lots of different voices and lots of different answers to that question of why we make and who a maker can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just a museum, but a civic space for dialogue, discovery and shared experience<\/p>\n
Kellow said east London\u2019s layered history made it a natural home for the V&A\u2019s five-storey expansion. \u201cEast London has such a rich history of industry, and making of all types \u2013 whatever that word might mean to people,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of the first experiments in plastics happened here at Hackney Wick, you had silk weaving at Spitalfelds.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, it\u2019s a hub for the latest fashion, and for designers rethinking use of materials for a climate-resilient future.\u201d Works by the late Australian-born performance artist Leigh Bowery will sit alongside Italian Renaissance paintings and 19th-century coral jewellery from India and Tibet.<\/p>\n
New acquisitions include pieces by artist and designer Yinka Ilori, an outfit from Lazy Oaf \u2019s recent collaboration with creative King Owusu, and photographs taken at Preston bus station by British documentary photographer Jamie Hawkesworth.<\/p>\n
Members of the Youth Collective influenced gallery layouts, materials and lighting, drawing inspiration from London\u2019s high streets, said Kellow. They also helped select and interview local artists whose work features in the opening displays. \u201cOur design is driven by the idea of openness \u2013 a building that welcomes its community, celebrates creativity, and frames the exchange between art, people and place,\u201d added V&A East project director, Jen McLachlan. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a museum, but a civic space for dialogue, discovery and shared experience.<\/p>\n
Main image: V&A East Museum \u00a9 Lewis Vorn<\/p>\n
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Support Positive News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London\u2019s newest major museum, V&A East, launches in Olympic Park with a landmark exhibition tracing the global impact…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46,442,11017,191433],"class_list":["post-404833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-london","tag-museum","tag-va-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}