The V&A East has announced its first exhibition, focusing on the history and celebration of black British music. The museum, set to open in 2025, will house The Music Is Black: A British Story, covering music history from 1900 to the present day.
The V&A East shared, “This landmark exhibition will reveal how Black British music has shaped British culture. Spanning four continents and 12 decades, this is a story of excellence and struggle, resilience and joy,” with it focusing on “125 years of Black music-making in Britain.”
We’re excited to announce our first exhibition, The Music Is Black: A British Story, opening at V&A East Museum, East Bank, in 2025.
You can read more about it here: https://t.co/mIhqroEiE9 #vameast #TMIB— V&A East (@vam_east) November 1, 2023
The Music Is Black will celebrate pioneers of black music including icons such as Janet Kay, Winifred Atwell and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, as well as modern day stars including Stormzy, Little Simz and Jorja Smith. The exhibition will also explore how musical greats including The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac were influenced by black music, drawing on its rich history to produce their now iconic works.
Promising an immersive experience, V&A East will draw on BBC archives, playbills, films, paintings and prints, amongst much more to provide an expansive walk-through of eras and stories. The curators are putting together “immersive AV and large-scale installations” to create a multi-sensory exhibition that will celebrate black music in all its glory.
Jaqueline Springer, curator of The Music Is Black, shared, “Music is the soundtrack to our lives, and one of the most powerful tools of unification. It brings collective and individual joy as we recite song lyrics at festivals and gigs, recall dance moves perfected in childhood bedrooms, and mime to guitar breaks, bassline drops and instrumental flourishes with glee.”
Springer continued, “Set against a backdrop of British colonialism and evolving social, political, and cultural landscapes, we will celebrate the richness and versatility of Black and Black British music as instruments of protest, affirmation, and creativity, and reveal the untold stories behind some of the world’s most popular music of all time.”
Hear more from Springer and her thoughts on music here:
Continuing the BPI’s #BlackHistoryMonth ‘Saluting our Sisters’ project is Jacqueline Springer, Curator of Africa & Diaspora: Performance at @V_and_A, speaking about her experience of and hopes for the future of our industry. pic.twitter.com/2X1VkiCqM8
— BPI (@bpi_music) November 1, 2023
The Music Is Black will also delve into the impact that migration has had on music, highlighting the importance of the Windrush movement bringing new sounds from the Caribbean to the UK. The exhibition will take us on a journey from the Windrush era all the way through to the current chart-topping tracks that hold Afr0-Caribbean influence.
The exhibition is set to open in Spring 2025.
Tickets will be available to purchase here.
