The Banksy-designed stab-proof vest that Stormzy wore at Glastonbury has gone on display at London’s new V&A East as part of a new, landmark exhibition about Black British music.
The new centre, located in the new cultural quarter of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, is set to open its doors on Saturday (April 18) and will celebrate the power of creativity to spark worldwide change.
As it opens, it will host a new landmark multi-sensory exhibition dubbed The Music is Black: A British Story. This is set to be the largest ever exhibition centred on the impact of Black British music on the UK and around the world.
Tracing back 125 years, the collection features over 200 objects and celebrates the emergence of distinct Black British genres including jungle, drum & bass, trip-hop, UK garage and grime.
Among the highlights of the exhibition are the stab-proof vest worn by Stormzy during his iconic 2019 Glastonbury headline set – designed by Banksy and originally conceived on the back of a napkin – and a piano owned by Winifred Atwell.
There is also Joan Armatrading‘s childhood guitar, the Super Nintendo Jme used for his early music experiments, clothing owned by iconic artists including Little Simz, Seal, Dame Shirley Bassey, Sade and Skin, and much more.
As well as various objects on display, there are also over 50 photographs from the 1960s to the 2010s for visitors to explore – including shots of Bob Marley and Skepta – as well as artworks that were made to capture the joy, resilience and importance of Black British artistry from Dame Sonia Boyce, Sir Frank Bowling, LR Vandy and more.
To celebrate the new exhibition, the BBC have partnered with V&A East to release a season of content inspired by the gallery across its channels, and it has also inspired The Music is Black Festival. The latter is a series of programming, displays and performances set to kick off this summer, made in collaboration with East Bank partners across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. More details about that are due to be announced shortly.
“Being part of the first The Music is Black: A British Story exhibition at V&A East Museum is such an exciting moment for me,” said Cat Burns, who is a V&A East Ambassador.
“V&A East Museum’s focus on creativity for change really speaks to how music and culture can inspire, challenge, and create opportunity. I’m looking forward to sharing this space and experience with everyone. It’s about celebrating art, identity, and stories that matter.”
Other exhibitions on offer at V&A East include New Work which features newly commissioned works by Tania Bruguera, Rene Matić, Justinien Tribillon, Carrie Mae Weems, and Laura Wilson, and Disposal, which includes photography of East London by Marion Davies and Debra Rapp.
A free-to-visit, permanent gallery called Why We Make is also available, and offers visitors “a fresh look at contemporary culture” with photographic works by Claude Cahun and Maud Sulter, fashion from Vivienne Westwood and fashion by Alexander McQueen, and much more.
Visit here for tickets and more information.
The expansion of the V&A into East London was announced in 2023 as part of the Mayor of London’s £1.1billion Olympic legacy project.
When The Music is Black: A British Story exhibition was first announced in November that year, musician and BBC radio broadcaster Trevor Nelson shared his support for the project, saying: “There are so many different colours and shades of Black music, and so many eclectic styles that have emerged from the UK.”
“The fact that we haven’t had a national exhibition on Black British music is quite surprising to me,” he added. “I feel it needs to be documented. But more importantly, to tell the stories that are untold.”
As well as the new five-storey V&A East building which opens this weekend, last spring also saw the launch of the new V&A Storehouse, also located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
That space is home to over 500,000 works, including the Glastonbury Festival Archives, costumes from PJ Harvey and Elton John, Samurai swords and more, and later in the year there was a collection of over 90,000 of David Bowie’s possessions that went on display.
Dubbed the David Bowie Centre, that installation included iconic costumes, musical instruments, personal notes, sketches and much more from the music icon, as well as curated exhibitions from collaborator Nile Rodgers and super-fans The Last Dinner Party.