What’s On At The V&A Right Now? (& What’s In The Pipeline)

One of London’s prettiest and most prestigious museums, the Victoria & Albert Museum, fondly known as the V&A, always has an impressive roster of exhibitions. Here’s what to book and look forward to at the V&A in 2026, from the main South Kensington museum to the more recently revived Young V&A which encourages visitors of all ages to play, imagine and design. There’s also the V&A East Storehouse in Stratford giving visitors an insight into the museum’s sprawling collection, plus the brand spanking new V&A East Museum, which opened in April 2026.

What’s On At The V&A In 2026/27?

• Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art: Until 1 November 2026, V&A South Kensington
• Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends: Until 15 November 2026, Young V&A
• The Music Is Black: A British Story: Until 3 January 2027, V&A Museum East
• Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific: Until 10 January 2027, V&A South Kensington
• Punk to Pop: 13 March 2027 – 2 January 2028, V&A South Kensington
• South Asia Now: Fashion. Art. Design.: 24 April 2027 – 23 January 2028, V&A East Museum
• Sculpture In Clay: British Ceramics 1985 To Now: 29 May 2027 – 6 February 2028, V&A South Kensington
• Chintz: 18 September 2027 – 4 June 2028, V&A South Kensington

Schiaparelli Haute Couture Fall Winter 2024 (Photo © Giovanni Giannoni. Photo courtesy of Patrimoine Schiaparelli, Paris)

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art

Following the huge success of Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto and NAOMI, the V&A South Kensington’s next fashion exhibition is set to be a goodie. Drawing on its foremost collection of the Italian designer’s garments, Elsa Schiaparelli is the museum’s next subject, with a dedicated exhibition delving into her uniquely fearless imagination and radical vision that blurred the boundaries between fashion and art. Here’s everything you need to know before you go.

Details: Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art runs from 28 March to 1 November 2026 at the V&A South Kensington (Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL). Tickets start from £28pp.

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(© David Parry/V&A)

Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends

The Young V&A’s third exhibition has a playfully British slant. Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends unpacks the unique British production company’s creative process, coinciding with the studio’s 50th anniversary year. From Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run to Shaun the Sheep and Morph, Aardman are behind some of the UK’s most iconic animated characters, and this family-oriented exhibition will showcase everything from idea development and storyboarding to model making and filming.

Details: Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends runs 12 February to 15 November 2026 at the Young V&A (Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PA). Tickets are £11pp.

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‘Hi Tension’, 1979 (© Adrian Boot, urbanimage.tv)

The Music Is Black: A British Story

The first exhibition at the all-new V&A East Museum in Stratford will be an ode to Black British musicians. Celebrating 125 years of Black music in our country, The Music is Black will span Jazz, Reggae, 2 Tone, Drum & Bass, Trip Hop, Garage, Grime and more, telling the long-overdue story of Black excellence, struggle, resilience, and joy. Read all about what to expect here.

Details: The Music Is Black: A British Story runs 18 April 2026 to 3 January 2027 at the V&A East Museum (107 Carpenters Rd, London E20 2AR). Tickets from £22.50.

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China China – Bust no.3 by AH XIAN, 1998.

Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific

In a landmark collaboration between the V&A and Australia’s Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, an unparalleled view of Asia Pacific’s dynamic creative landscape will land in South Kensington in spring 2026. Featuring rare works by 40 creatives (some never seen before outside Asia-Pacific) and drawing on 30 years of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) exhibition series, First Nations perspectives will be foregrounded across art and objects, including weaving, ceramics, jewellery and miniature painting.

Details: Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific runs 16 May 2026 to 10 January 2027 at the V&A South Kensington (Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL). Tickets are £17pp.

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Promotional poster for Sex Pistols’ single God Save The Queen, 1977. (Jamie Reid/Sex Pistols Residuals/Universal Music Group)

Punk To Pop

This year marks 50 years of punk, and next year the V&A will unleash the rebellious subculture on its South Kensington museum. Described as ‘an immersive celebration of music, art and fashion’, the landmark exhibition will trace how the underground scenes of 1972–1985 and a generation of radical artists – from the Sex Pistols to The Slits, The Specials to Joy Division, Wham! to Eurythmics – shaped the future of popular culture. We are told more than 300 objects will be on display, including stage costumes, photography, music videos and designs.

Details: Punk to Pop will run from 13 March 2027 to 2 January 2028 at the V&A South Kensington (Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL). More information, including ticketing, will be released in due course. To stay up to date, visit vam.ac.uk

Amesh, Paddy Field Play, Lead The Way, 2022. (© Tavish Gunasena/AMESH)

South Asia Now: Fashion. Art. Design.

Over in Stratford, once the inaugural multimedia exhibition The Music Is Black has wrapped up, the V&A East Museum’s attention will shift to South Asia, exploring the extraordinary creativity, innovation and global influence emerging from the region today. Drawing more than 200 objects together (including rare loans and new commissions) from the worlds of art, fashion, architecture and design, South Asia Now is set to be the first major international exhibition to showcase the extraordinary breadth of creativity rooted in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Details: South Asia Now: Fashion. Art. Design. will run from 24 April 2027 to 23 January 2028 at the V&A East Museum (107 Carpenters Rd, London E20 2AR). More information, including ticketing, will be released in due course. To stay up to date, visit vam.ac.uk

Jacqueline Poncelet, Object in 3 Parts, 1986. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

Sculpture In Clay: British Ceramics 1985 To Now

And now for a very British exhibition: Sculpture in Clay is set to shine a spotlight on how fired and unfired clay has become an essential and dynamic medium for sculpture and installation art, especially on home shores. Using an art historical lens, visitors will see how artists have reinterpreted, subverted and challenged conventional ceramic practice to create novel works from the mid 80s to the present day. With both major installations and smaller individual pieces on display, the work of major figures including Jacqueline Poncelet, Antony Gormley, Edmund de Waal, Richard Deacon and Clare Twomey will be on show.

Details: Sculpture In Clay: British Ceramics 1985 To Now will run from 29 May 2027 to 6 February 2028 at the V&A South Kensington (Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL). More information, including ticketing, will be released in due course. To stay up to date, visit vam.ac.uk

Woman’s overdress, made in Coastal southeast India, ca. 1760-1770. Hand painted and dyed cotton. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

Chintz

Another one living up to the V&A’s legacy as a design museum, Chintz will delve into the genesis and evolution of this divisive fabric. Created in South India by hand-drawing designs on cotton, the 1600s and 1700s saw a Chintz boom, with  demand for the floral fabric across each and every continent, and across every level of society. Flash forward 400 years, and Chintz retains a global influence. The Chintz exhibition will reframe the consumer product as an art form akin to painting and drawing, celebrating South Indian makers of chintz as among the most influential artists in art and design history.

Details: Chintz will run from 18 September 2027 to 4 June 2028 at the V&A South Kensington (Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL). More information, including ticketing, will be released in due course. To stay up to date, visit vam.ac.uk

The V&A (Getty Images)

The V&A Explained

Founded in 1852 by, you guessed it, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Victoria & Albert Museum (best known as the V&A) is known for its eclectic collection of art, including ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings and photographs. The V&A collection holds more than 4.5 million objects and, boasting 145 galleries on a 12.5 acre footprint, the South Kensington site is the world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design.

The V&A also has a site in Dundee, a children’s museum in Bethnal Green, and the sister sites in Stratford, V&A East Museum and V&A East Storehouse.

But it doesn’t end there: as of 2026, the V&A collection is spread across six museums, including the V&A Dundee, the V&A Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent and four London outposts. They are:

• V&A South Kensington (Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL)
• V&A East Museum, Stratford (107 Carpenters Rd, Stratford Cross, London E20 2AR)
• V&A East Storehouse, Stratford (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Parkes St, London E20 3AX)
• Young V&A, Bethnal Green (Cambridge Heath Rd, London E2 9PA)

Inside the V&A East Museum. (© David Parry/ V&A)

The V&A East Museum is a long awaited second London outpost for the original South Kensington V&A Museum, set to open on Saturday 18 April 2026. Created with young people, creatives and local East Londoners, the focus here will be on the people and ideas shaping global culture right now, an evolving story told through galleries, exhibitions, creative commissions and events. Fittingly, the first exhibition will be The Music is Black, also opening on 18 April.

View of the Weston Collections Hall at V&A East Storehouse. (© David Parry/PA Media Assignments)

Around 15 minutes across the park on foot, find the V&A East Storehouse, a purpose-built, 16,000 sq/m working storage building for the collection’s treasures usually hidden away due to space constraints, giving visitors new and unparalleled access to the V&A Museum’s millions-strong collection. As former Arts Minister Ed Vaizey wrote for C&TH earlier this year, ‘We can and should do more to make sure the places where museums keep their collections are open (as much as possible) to the public as well as scholars.’ Spread across three levels, visitors can find mini displays, encounter different unexpected objects and observe conservators at work in the studio.

Young V&A Town Square. (© David Parry/V&A)

Then there’s the Young V&A in Bethnal Green, a recently revitalised museum dedicated to young people and their creativity.

Is It Free To Enter?

All V&A Museum sites are free to enter to see the permanent collections and a few temporary exhibits, although you have to purchase a ticket for most exhibitions.

Visit vam.ac.uk for more information.