Stepping Back,
Looking Forward

Leaving The Music is Black, the inaugural temporary exhibition at the V&A East Museum, I found myself stuck in an uncomfortable position: between an angry journalist and the exit. The journalist, I learned, was incensed over the use of headphones in the exhibition, which she said would stop attendees from interacting with each other, be it discussing the works or dancing to the music. The medium, she felt, not only defeated the message but made a mockery of the institution of museum-going altogether. I am usually shy in the face of such outbursts, embarrassed by her haranguing of the gallery assistants and cowed by the fact I was not as moved by the exhibition as her. As it was, I felt the use of headphones was a useful, sensible choice: in an exhibition about the historical influence of black culture on British music, the headphones synced up with each poster, video and relic to provide a corresponding soundtrack with each step.

It worked. The Music is Black proves a dynamic, thoughtful exhibition wherein visitors are greeted with a vast selection of objects: an eighteenth-century manuscript here, a dress worn by Shirley Bassey circa 2013 there. I enjoyed calibrating myself with each item and did not feel the exhibition lacked community spirit, as museums have never been sociable places for me anyway. Still, the journalist’s lament stayed with me. The V&A East Museum is something of a Covid baby: conceived in 2020, the project has been reared with community in mind, as director Gus Casely-Hayford explained in his welcome speech. This is especially germane considering its location, in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the development of which caused the displacement of hundreds of residents and businesses. From the outside, the building looks like a giant bug couched within its metal carapace, shelved rather imposingly on the canal. Inside, it is spacious, open, albeit a little severe. Being one of the first cohorts to attend the museum, I was struck by the building’s apparent closed-offness and its geographic remove from the conventional centres of British culture, though it warmed up as the curator and director began their speeches. 

For any cultural institution looking to reinvent itself for a modern audience, the challenge of how and to what extent this should be done is inevitable. In order to approach this, the V&A East takes a literal and figurative step back, attempting to meet modernity halfway with its headset-clad exhibitions and imposing E20 new-builds. If the success of its sister outpost, the V&A East Storehouse, suggests anything, it is that people are searching for new ways to experience art and culture, divorced from the stuffy conventions of the past and in line with the sleek, slightly social-awkward efficiency of the present.  Amelia McGarvey