The V&A’s Exciting 2026: New Museum Opening, Major Exhibitions, and Wallace & Gromit

The Victoria and Albert Museum has announced an impressive slate of exhibitions and events for 2026, headlined by the long-awaited opening of V&A East in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Here’s everything Anglophiles need to know about what’s coming to Britain’s premier design museum.

V&A East Opens Its Doors

The biggest news is the April 18th opening of V&A East Museum, a brand-new venue on East Bank in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The museum has been co-created with young people and local communities from east London, and will feature two free permanent “Why We Make” galleries exploring global culture through fashion, visual art, photography, architecture, design, and performance.

The museum’s opening exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story, promises to be unmissable. Celebrating 125 years of Black music in Britain, the show traces the evolution from Jazz to Reggae, 2 Tone, Drum & Bass, Trip Hop, UK Garage, Grime, and beyond. Contemporary artists including Sampha, Little Simz, Jorja Smith, and Ezra Collective feature alongside early 20th-century pioneers. A partnership with BBC Music and a festival with East Bank partners will accompany the exhibition.

Schiaparelli Takes Centre Stage at South Kensington

Opening March 28th, Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art marks the first UK exhibition devoted to the legendary fashion house. Spanning from the late 1920s to today, the show features over 200 objects including garments, accessories, jewellery, artworks, and perfumes.

Highlights include the V&A’s own “Skeleton” and “Tears” dresses, the surreal Shoe hat created with Salvador Dalí, and artworks by Picasso, Jean Cocteau, and Man Ray. The exhibition traces founder Elsa Schiaparelli’s role as a pioneering female entrepreneur and follows the house’s journey to its present incarnation under Creative Director Daniel Roseberry.

From May 16th, Rising Voices: Contemporary art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific brings work from 40 leading artists to South Kensington in collaboration with Brisbane’s Queensland Art Gallery. Drawing on over 30 years of the Asia Pacific Triennial, the exhibition includes rare works never before seen outside the region.

Wallace & Gromit Celebrate 50 Years of Aardman

Young V&A in Bethnal Green opens Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends on February 12th, coinciding with the beloved animation studio’s 50th anniversary. The family-focused exhibition takes visitors behind the scenes of the animation process, from storyboarding to model making to post-production. Over 150 objects will be on display, including never-before-seen models, sets, and storyboards from Aardman’s archives featuring Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Morph.

V&A Dundee

For those venturing to Scotland, V&A Dundee offers two notable exhibitions: Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show (opening April 3rd), a UK exclusive charting the evolution of the runway from private 19th-century salons to today’s live-streamed spectacles, and Design and Disability (opening June 4th), celebrating Disabled-led design across fashion, art, architecture, and photography.

It’s shaping up to be a landmark year for the V&A family of museums.