Opening up the arts with V&A East
V&A East is about celebrating global creativity, building on 150-years of heritage in East London and V&A's founding mission to make the arts accessible to all. Located close to the V&A museum at East Bank, the two museums are creating something for the future, transforming access to their collections and connecting with communities in new and meaningful ways.
Forming a 360-degree view of museum life.
The V&A East Storehouse is designed around the V&A's stored collections, spanning 5,000 years of global art, design and performance. It is a purpose-built space for 250,000 objects, 350,000 books and 1,000 archives, and it will be a constantly changing hive of activity. There will be self-guided routes taking visitors behind the scenes, opening up the V&A’s collections like never before.
Further spaces within the centre will host pop-up displays, workshops, performances and screenings alongside live encounters with the museum’s work. A dedicated viewing gallery will be created to showcase a changing display of rarely-seen large rolled objects from the V&A’s extraordinary collection of theatre stage cloths, carpets, textiles, tapestries and paintings.
Image references (left to right)
Behind the scenes at the V&A’s Blythe House Stores. Materials from Vivien Leigh’s Archive are prepared ready to move to V&A East Storehouse. © Jamie Stoker Image Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Internal render view of the central collection hall in V&A East Storehouse at Here East, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro © Diller Scofidio + Renfro, 2018
Textiles are prepared in Clothworkers Centre for the Study of Textiles and Fashion, ready to move to V&A East Storehouse © Jamie Stoker Image Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Internal render view showing a performance taking place in the central public collection hall in V&A East Storehouse at Here East, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. © Diller Scofidio + Renfro, 2018
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250,000
Objects -
350,000
Books -
1,000
Archives
