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When people begin to flock to the V&A East this week, Gus Casely-Hayford has a very specific vision for how he wants the masses to experience this new bastion of British art in the heart of East London. It's very simple. ‘We want people to come here and dream,’ he says. The director wants people to 'put themselves in the place of makers and think about their own creative futures, the places they might travel to, the makers that they might meet and the person that they might become.
It's a noble aim, and one which connects directly to the cultural history of East London. For generations, this corner of the capital has welcomed waves of migration, each bringing new forms of expression, knowledge and a distinct aesthetic. For Gus, director of the new V&A East, this is not just incidental history, but the very framework of the museum and a foundational reason for why the latest outpost of the world-leading institution is based in Stratford.
‘For centuries, east London was the first place immigrants would arrive,’ he explains. ‘With them, they brought incredible traditions, but they also opened up the local community to the cultural complexities of the world and the brilliance that could come from hybridity and combinations.’ This exchange – and tension – transformed the area into a crucible of creativity and cultural dynamism, making it a testing ground for some of the UK’s most exciting contemporary artists.
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Born to immigrant parents, Gus grew up in a household where creative expression was also an act of self-preservation. ‘When visiting from West Africa, my aunts would bring beautiful cloths, lay them over their laps and tell stories of the motherland,’ he recalls of his formative years. ‘Like many diaspora kids, my siblings and I developed an appreciation for how you can carry your history with you through beautiful objects and feel connected to your heritage even when one is physically separated from it.’ Later, his travels – particularly across the Global South – reinforced an understanding of culture as both an anchor and a springboard.
The V&A East's curatorial vision is rooted in this spirit of appreciation. Spread across two floors, and organised into ten thematic concepts, the permanent Why We Make galleries tackle ideas of representation, identity, social justice and wellbeing through a range of creative expression.
Featuring over 500 objects, the collection spans an extraordinary range: from work by Yasmeen Lari and the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, and an early Windsor armchair (dated 1790–1810), to a 2014 section model of a Liverpudlian terraced house. It also includes ballet costumes for Because We Must (1987) designed by Leigh Bowery and corset-maker Mr. Pearl, as well as natural plastic prototypes developed in 2011 by Studio Formafantasma ffrom Italy.
A striking hot pink dress by Molly Goddard (2019) sets the tone; it reads as a contemporary answer to an archival Balenciaga gown – one of the most sought after pieces at the nearby V&A East Storehouse – whose boning inspired the architecture of this building. Together, these works immerse the visitor in the many facets of making culture and highlight the museum's fluid movement across time, geography and media that transforms it from a repository of objects into a mirror and a projection of ingenuity. ‘I want people to see themselves in our collections,’ says Gus, ‘I hope the V&A East is a place where you can find yourself – and the world – in [the art].'
Curated by music journalist Jacqueline Springer, the museum’s opening exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story, highlights issues of equity and creative resilience. ‘It speaks about excellence, about British history and the ways in which certain kinds of marginalised communities have found ways of celebrating and being seen,’ explains Gus. ‘The way Jacqueline managed to coax some of the most important exponents of the genre to share their experiences or valuable objects that tell the story of Black British music gives authorship to its creators.’
But the V&A East isn’t just a showcase of the institution's old collection; in actively engaging with cohorts of young people, locally in east London and across the country, the museum is shaping an entirely new body of work too – one that documents making, migration and inclusivity through the lens of our youth. ‘I was living in the US before I took this job, and when I returned to the UK I was struck by the power of young British people voicing their disappointment but also by their determination to reshape their destinies on their own terms,’ says Gus. ‘Our entire team is inspired and enthused by their passion for equity, change, our environment and creative expression.’ And so, to help bring a new perspective to its collections, the museum has collaborated with young east Londoners, communities, and creatives across mixed media on new projects – ranging from oral history soundcasts to films and publications – that offer fresh insights and wider context.
Dublin-based architecture studio O’Donnell & Tuomey worked for eleven years to bring the V&A East building to life. ‘It was a relatively small site with a big ambition,’ recalls John Tuomey, founding director, about the pleated concrete landmark. ‘Our aim was to make a building with a strong sense of identity, a truly public building that could excite curiosity.’ To achieve this, John and his team devised a hidden steel skeleton that incorporates 481 individual precast pieces, each differing from one another in size and shape, fitting tightly together to form a singular whole – like society. The result is a modern museum that doesn't awe with grand gestures, but rather, its enveloping silhouette welcomes you with quiet confidence and human-scaled design.
What does Gus hope the world can take away from the museum? ‘We want V&A East to be a space of celebration, love, inspiration and possibility.’
The V&A East opens to the public on April 18, 2026. vam.ac.uk
