The V&A East has opened in Stratford, east London
The opening exhibition celebrates Black music in Britain with photography and artefacts including the stab-proof vest Stormzy wore at Glastonbury Festival
V&A East director Gus Caseley-Hayford has said that the museum will be an inclusive and welcoming space
The much-anticipated V&A East Museum has opened in Stratford, east London, UK.
Designed by architects O’Donnell + Tuomey, 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
Intended as a legacy for the 2012 London Olympics, the 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 museum features two free permanent Why We Make galleries, exhibiting more than 500 objects from the V&A’s collections, alongside maor temporary exhibitions.
The opening exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story, focuses on Black music in Britain, with photography and exhibits including Joan Armatrading's guitar and fashion work by Little Simz.
Director of the V&A East Gus Casely-Hayford said of the aims of the museum: "My early museum memories were of distance and barriers. We want to change that by exposing young people to truly exceptional things.
"Thinking back to being a teenager – I would have adored a place of refuge and escape and inspiration. A place in which I could see myself reflected."
