V&A East Museum announces opening date and first exhibitions

The much-anticipated V&A East Museum will open on 18 April 2026.

More than a decade in the planning, the new branch of the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) will be a cornerstone of the East Bank cultural complex in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London.

Intended as a legacy for the 2012 London Olympics, the ambitious regeneration project was inspired by the cultural boom in South Kensington after the 1851 Great Exhibition and London's South Bank after the Festival of Britain in 1951.

The V&A East Museum will feature two free permanent Why We Make galleries with more than 500 objects from the V&A’s collections, spanning global art, architecture, design, performance and fashion.

Artefacts include Leigh Bowery and Mr Pearl’s fetish-inspired ballet costumes for Michael Clark Company’s 1987 production, Because We Must, and Derek Jarman’s set model for Don Giovanni at Sadler’s Wells Opera, 1968, which shocked critics of the day with its bold abstract, geometric shapes.   

These will sit alongside a 17th century gown by textile designer Anna Maria Garthwaite, who moved to east London in 1730 to establish herself in the silk-weaving district and became one of only a few women designers to become commercially successful in an industry led by men.

One part of the exhibition, Caring for Ourselves, will explore how making and care are connected, "from the therapeutic to the protective, the design and ritual use of objects can empower the mind and body".

This will show photographs from Jo Spence’s 1989 Narratives of Dis-ease series, when the artist used phototherapy to process the trauma she experienced through breast cancer.  Other objects include wearable protection such as 16th century European ornamental pomanders (scent cases) thought to ward off disease, and 18th century coral necklaces and amulet cases from Tibet and Northern India designed to repel evil.

The museum will showcase a variety of new acquisitions, including works by creative Yinka Ilori, the architecture collective Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh, the eco-conscious fashion designer VIN + OMI, and zines by east London-based One of My Kind and Rabbits Road Press.

A monumental work by the British sculptor Thomas J Price, who is known for his stop-motion animations and bronze sculptures, will welcome visitors as they enter the museum.

The museum - and its sister-site, the now-open V&A East Storehouse - will feature a six-monthly rotating programme of creative commissions, along with events “spotlighting the people, ideas and creativity shaping global culture”.

The first commissions are eight new artworks by Tania Bruguera, Es Devlin, Lawrence Lek, Turner Prize-nominated artist Rene Matić, Shahed Saleem, Justinien Tribillon, Carrie Mae Weems, and Laura Wilson, which will be unveiled across the V&A East Museum and Storehouse. All of the works respond to the history and future of east London’s creativity. 

The museum’s cafe will be run in partnership with Jikoni, a restaurant group known for “cooking without borders”.    

The museum has unveiled details of its first temporary exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story, which explores 125 years of Black music-making in Britain.

The exhibition will feature Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, fashion worn by Little Simz and newly acquired photographs by Jennie Baptiste, Dennis Morris, Eddie Otchere and Sam White, as well as a partnership with BBC Music and East Bank.

To coincide with its opening, V&A East is launching a partnership with BBC Music that will include complementary programming inspired by the exhibition. 

The museum will also collaborate with East Bank partners, including the London College of Fashion, UAL, the BBC, Sadler’s Wells East and UCL East, on a new annual festival in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park “celebrating creativity, collaboration and community”.

The first edition of the event, The Music is Black Festival, will take place in spring 2026. 

“In today’s world where we’re facing down challenges from the climate crisis to increasing polarisation, museums and the creative industries have a vital role in bringing people together, celebrating communities, sparking conversations and spotlighting the many ways that global artists, designers and makers are using their creativity to change the world for the better,” said Gus Casely-Hayford, the director of V&A East.

“We have created V&A East Museum with and for our audiences, as a welcoming space for all, embedded in east London and with a global outlook, that reflects the multiculturalism of this incredible place that has been the beating heart of creativity for centuries. V&A East Museum is for you– my hope is you’ll find joy, something of yourself and a sense of belonging the moment you walk through the door.”  

The V&A East Museum building has been designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey. The Why We Make Galleries are designed by JA_Projects in collaboration with A Practice for Everyday Life and Larry Achiampong. 

Studio Mutt designed the retail spaces, while Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey is the exhibition designer for The Music is Black: A British Story. Wayfinding at the museum by Fieldwork Facility.