{"id":1887240,"date":"2026-04-17T10:44:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1887240"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:44:02","slug":"inside-the-landmark-exhibition-showcasing-the-story-of-black-british-music-at-londons-brand-new-va","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1887240","title":{"rendered":"Inside The \u2018Landmark\u2019 Exhibition Showcasing The Story of Black British Music at London\u2019s Brand-New V&A"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Skepta-2026-press-cr-Sam-White-billboard-1800.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIn the depths of lockdown, when Jacqueline Springer read the Victoria & Albert Museum\u2019s advert for the role of Curator Africa & Diaspora: Performance, it struck her as a \u201cchorus of realisation.\u201d For the London-raised creative, whose illustrious career spans music journalism and broadcasting, lecturing, programming and event coordination, the role felt like a rare alignment of her academic study and curatorial practice, bringing those strands together within a single space.<\/p>\n

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See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tSpeaking to Billboard U.K. <\/em>over video call, Springer recalls spending \u201cover a fortnight\u201d on the application as she revisited the lessons she has gained from over a decade spent teaching about representation and sociological theories with music media. The successful candidate would be given the space to rethink how narratives surrounding Africa and its diaspora are collected, interpreted, and staged within one of the world\u2019s most influential cultural institutions. Energized by the possibilities this would entail, Springer knew she had to take the chance.<\/p>\n

\n\tFive years on, we speak mere weeks before the April 18 opening of The Music Is Black: A British Story<\/em>, the inaugural exhibition at V&A East \u2013 the V&A Museum\u2019s new site in Stratford, east London, an area considered the birthplace of grime. In originating her role with the V&A, Springer has been pivotal to the development of this new immersive exhibition, which frames Black British music as a central force in shaping the U.K.\u2019s wider cultural identity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSome people may think that this exhibition is just about the history of Black British music, which it isn\u2019t,\u201d she explains. \u201cTheir mind may go straight to the mid-1970s\u2019, or if they like jungle and drum \u2018n\u2019 bass, the mid-\u201900s. But you have to travel through the preceding histories to get there, which are complex. They overlap. They show inhumanity; they show inventiveness. You have to strip it all back in order to get that messaging across.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEncompassing 125 years of history, The Music Is Black: A British Story <\/em>maps the impact of British colonialism and how migration has influenced the cross-cultural richness of modern music. It houses over 220 objects, drawing on photographs, paintings, prints, stage outfits and more, honouring trailblazers like Janet Kay, Dame Shirley Bassey and Steel Pulse alongside contemporary voices such as Dave and Jorja Smith. It also examines how the sounds and styles forged within Black British music have been reinterpreted by acts like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, moving through genres from reggae and lovers rock to blues and Afrobeats.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn reframing that history on such a scale, the exhibition seeks to redefine where that musical legacy begins, and who it belongs to. Springer describes how she spent years travelling across the country to gather her research, which included discussions with the family of the late Charlie Watts \u2013 the Rolling Stones drummer was an avowed jazz fan and record collector \u2013 and a trip to Birmingham to examine the Gun Quarter\u2019s historical role in the arms trade and its links to the transatlantic slave trade.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith its grand opening approaching, Springer discusses her research process for the exhibition, how the industry has responded, and what it means to be engaging new audiences with the work of an institution as iconic as the V&A.<\/p>\n

When you began working on this project a few years ago, how did you first envision the exhibition looking? And how did that change over time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt has changed over time, but the \u2018rail tracks\u2019 of it were always quite fixed. We begin in 1900, when the age of invention, which had really invigorated the previous century, starts to shift rather than stop. It moves into mass media: print remains dominant, then radio arrives, then television. Cinema becomes a popular form, but it\u2019s also used by news, especially during the world wars, and that intersection has always interested me.<\/p>\n

\n\tMy work in academia, over ten years across Syracuse, Westminster, and Fordham, has consistently been about media: how it treats people, what it communicates, and how representation is constructed. How do you depict someone who is northern, or gay, or poor? These building blocks come from pre-existing histories, shaped by a country\u2019s wealth, its sense of itself, and how it\u2019s seen by others. That then filters into society \u2013 how people are ranked, how they rank others \u2013 and how those views are reinforced and exploited through print, cinema, radio and broadcast.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat thinking feeds directly into the exhibition. It\u2019s about how we view other cultures, languages and musical forms. Jazz, for instance, was initially dismissed as unserious or disruptive; blues was seen as lesser; gospel emerges from a Bible imposed on enslaved people. These judgments are tied to race, class and power, and to how \u201cacceptable\u201d culture is defined.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo the process has been about tidying that up \u2013 making a big, complex idea digestible. It\u2019s moved from something quite bold and conceptual into something people can actually walk through, listen to, and understand. As audiences engage with it \u2013 through music and other senses \u2013 it becomes a way of deepening their understanding of musicality and the African diaspora. And that\u2019s come through collaboration, both within the V&A and with external partners.<\/p>\n

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\"Tricky\"<\/div>\n<\/div>
Adrian Boot<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

To what extent is this exhibition shaped by trust and your relationships, as opposed to formal research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tBy getting the role, you\u2019re entrusted to know what you\u2019re doing, and an interview demands that there\u2019s a test, in many respects, to see if you\u2019re best for the job. I come from a background in print, music journalism, broadcast journalism, but also lecturing to university students, and also independently curating events. So I already spoke to people \u2013 people who are interested in the topic, but not necessarily how it\u2019s presented, until they see elements that they can understand.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd that\u2019s definitely the case with students. You know, I used to teach for three hours at a time, so I always activated or interspersed my lectures with content, empirical evidence that they could see. If we\u2019re talking about the World Wars, they had newsprint that they could actually see how the enemy was produced and represented.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn relation to the research that I was going to undertake for the exhibition, that same approach applies: making sure that what I present is grounded, visible, and something people can engage with and understand.<\/p>\n

How do you present underground scenes that may have been preserved through community memory rather than in art or writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI have to say, you\u2019re wrong. People keep things. I just think that the performer populace and the fandom [of certain scenes], have just not been approached to actually say, \u201cCan we share this?\u201d You know, we\u2019ve now got the Museum of Youth Culture [in London], and you\u2019ve got young people throwing their material at them. But you\u2019ve also got some people who are institutionally-averse who may say, \u201cHow are you going to look after my things?\u201d And, also the vast majority of artists that were approached never thought the V&A would ask them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tArtists retain their own experiences, and many of them have retained a lot of their personal ephemera. [This process] was about tailoring that ephemera in a way that it looked elegant. Rather than asking for specific objects, I asked artists to consider [their journeys], and then I came back to them. My approach was to ask them if they could identify an item that actually testified to their ability to make music. So it\u2019s not necessarily an instrument, it could be anything \u2013 and then their explanation would help me work out where that item would knit with another.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the things that was so surprising to me was that the vast majority of artists, when I asked them that question, they said, \u201cI\u2019ve got some sales discs\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s an institutional calculation of your commercial value, that\u2019s a response to the art you make. We have Joan Armatrading\u2019s handwritten chord book. We have a handwritten musical score by an opera singer called Peter Brockway, it\u2019s beautiful material. We\u2019ve got [singer] Junior Giscombe\u2019s glasses; he was encouraged to take them off so that he could break America. You\u2019ve got some of those big moments, but you\u2019ve also got these beautiful moments that show how people actually work and mobilize together.<\/p>\n

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\"Skunk<\/div>\n<\/div>
Daniel Pollitt<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

What did it take to build and deepen trust with those prospective donors who were initially \u201cinstitutionally averse\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tFirstly, I\u2019ll tell you that musicians keep secrets; I would trust them with a secret even more than some of my good friends! [When speaking to artists], I would reaffirm the reputation of the V&A, and then let them know how precious this exhibition is to me. I mean, the V&A recently had an exhibition on Faberg\u00e9 eggs [Faberg\u00e9 in London: Romance to Revolution, 2022<\/em>] \u2013 they\u2019re so expensive! There were security guards in situ alongside the objects, not just in the room.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut whether it\u2019s a Faberg\u00e9 egg or [Lovers rock artist] Janet Kay\u2019s stage clothing, these are classed as museum objects. We don\u2019t see them just as a dress or a record disc, they\u2019re covered by Government Indemnity insurance; they are precious objects, and they allow us to tell a story to the public. Formal loan agreements are signed and there\u2019s a robust process to it.<\/p>\n

Were there conversations with artists that shifted your understanding of their work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI think JME is a quiet storm. You know, he is often referred to as \u201cSkepta\u2019s brother\u201d or the co-founder of Boy Better Know, but he knows his own value. I met him at an event through my best friend, who works for ITV and reads the news. So I said, \u201cJME is over there, he looks like he doesn\u2019t want to be disturbed. Can you take your famous face over there to reassure him?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat warmed him up a little bit; he\u2019s a reluctant participant when it comes to being a celebrity, but we worked to get his guard down. I told him about the exhibition and he said, \u201cWell, you can have a Super Nintendo. I used to make music on it; that\u2019s how you make beats if you don\u2019t have any money but you\u2019ve got an inventive mind.\u201d When you look back over the course of the exhibition \u2013 the creation of the wax cylinder all the way to PinkPantheress deciding through TikTok that she\u2019s going to make short songs \u2013 you think about the inventiveness of people, and how much of it has born through through socio-economics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPirate radio was born of a desire for musical autonomy. The national broadcaster says, \u201cWe\u2019re not playing jazz\u201d in the early 1920s; \u201cWe\u2019re not playing rock \u2018n\u2019 roll\u201d in the early 1950s. So you listen to pirate radio, and then by the 1970s, [Dread Broadcasting Corporation] DBC and others start to broadcast illegally, because the music is still there. So you constantly find the way in this exhibition through which Black people have insisted on having their rights.<\/p>\n

How do you feel the exhibition will set a precedent for what V&A East represents going forward?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThis is a landmark exhibition because of its breadth. But it has to attract a younger audience, many of whom feel that unless they go with school, they don\u2019t go to museums. They see museums as a place where they\u2019re forced to go on a day trip when they probably want to go somewhere else \u2013 we\u2019ve all been there, where the structure of a school trip can take the delight out of things and feel like a chore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTalking to young people and showing them how self-expression is an extension of your identity, that it is just like the words that you type into your phone, is important; your creative calling can be your absolute joy. You have to open the door and tell them, \u201cThis museum is yours forever.\u201d The exhibition falls into that, because that\u2019s what music is \u2013 it\u2019s art and it\u2019s forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn many respects, the exhibition complements the overarching ambitions of this museum. It will become a beautiful memory after nine months, but hopefully, like a good lecture at university or school, it lives on with you like a little nugget of inspiration.<\/p>\n

Beyond visitor numbers or positive press coverage, what would success look like for this exhibition?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI just want people to leave the exhibition, if possible, thinking with awe. People who make music walk among you; you may be sat next to them on the bus, they may be sat opposite you on the train. Think how incredible it is to live under the same sky as somebody who makes music that makes you feel better about yourself.<\/p>\n

\"Billboard<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/features\/va-east-london-black-music-exhibition-1236225048\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Skepta-2026-press-cr-Sam-White-billboard-1800.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard In the depths of lockdown, when Jacqueline Springer read the Victoria & Albert Museum\u2019s advert for the role of Curator Africa & Diaspora: Performance, it struck her as a \u201cchorus of realisation.\u201d For the London-raised creative, whose illustrious career spans music journalism and broadcasting, lecturing, programming and event coordination, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-1887240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1887240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1887240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1887240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1887240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}