SAM WHITE
PHOTOGRAPHY
documentary. music. editorial. fashion
The Music is Black: A British Story 2026 at V&A East Museum
V&A East announces its first exhibition, The Music Is Black: A British Story, opening at V&A East Museum, East Bank, in 2026. The landmark exhibition will reveal how Black British music has shaped British culture – and its global impact – to tell a long-overdue story of Black excellence, struggle, resilience, and joy. Spanning 1900 to the present day, The Music Is Black: A British Story will celebrate 125 years of Black music in Britain, taking visitors into the heart of music making, from Carnival to club nights, recording studios and record shops, MC battles, festivals, and more. With full access to the extraordinary BBC Archive, the exhibition will have a soundtrack spanning generations and an evocative set design.
From early pioneers, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Winifred Atwell, Emile Ford and Janet Kay the exhibition will also highlight international music-makers including Joan Armatrading, Eddy Grant, Sade, Soul II Soul, Seal, Fabio & Grooverider, Goldie, Massive Attack and Tricky. It will also focus on the multi-talented artists of today, V&A East reveals first major exhibition - The Music Is Black: A British Story from Shabaka Hutchings to Kano, Little Simz, Jorja Smith, Nubya Garcia, Ezra Collective and more.
​
​
​

S​​​​am White Kano and Ghetts, i-D Live, Cargo, March 2005
V&A East Museum’s The Music Is Black: A British Story will draw on the V&A’s extensive archive of performance in Britain and around the world, and track record in creating evocative and immersive performance exhibitions from David Bowie Is… (2013) to Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains (2017) and DIVA (2023). With a mix of never-before-seen major new acquisitions and international loans, the exhibition will showcase immersive AV, large-scale installations, and seminal musical instruments, equipment, and personal belongings from some of the most ground-breaking music-makers of the last century. The exhibition will also address the social, historical, and cultural context behind Black music in Britain, which led to the creation of the UK’s most progressive musical genres from Brit Funk to Lovers Rock, 2 Tone, Jungle, Ragga, Drum & Bass, Trip Hop, UK Garage, Grime and beyond. Paintings, prints, playbills, and posters, sculpture, TV, fashion and textiles, photography and film, will all help tell a broader story of Black
British music and its cultural impact beyond sound.
​​A national and international story, the exhibition will also spotlight the creativity and impact of east London on Black British music across time. Home to All Points East festival and Hackney Carnival, and birthplace of Rinse FM, Grime, and artists and groups including Newham Generals, East Connection, Roll Deep, and N.A.S.T.Y Crew, east London is also known for its legendry radio stations, studios, clubs, and venues. From Jammer’s Basement (Leytonstone, Waltham Forest) where Lord of the Mics was founded, to the now closed The Blue Note (Hoxton Square, Hackney), where Drum & Bass exploded on a Sunday night courtesy of the pioneering Metalheadz sessions by Goldie and Kemistry & Storm, the exhibition will explore this and more.
​
For more information https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/the-music-is-black-a-british-story