Gus Casely-Hayford, director of V&A East, is preparing to open a revolutionary museum space designed specifically to engage young people and historically underserved communities. The ambitious project, set to open on April 18, 2026, represents a fundamental shift in how major cultural institutions can welcome and inspire the next generation of creative minds.

As a child, Casely-Hayford's relationship with museums was complicated. Despite being attracted to these cultural spaces, he often felt unwelcome, particularly because they rarely told the stories of Black British people like himself. However, his sister Margaret was determined to change his perspective, taking him to the British Museum and telling him that "these spaces belong to all of us." She encouraged him by saying that while museums might not tell their stories, "that's something that you can change."

Now, decades later, Casely-Hayford is fulfilling that promise by creating a space where young people can "come in and have those transformative moments that change the trajectory of their lives." V&A East operates across two sites in London's Olympic Park: V&A Storehouse, which opened in May and has already exceeded visitor targets in just one-third of the projected time, and V&A East Museum, housed in a five-story building designed by Irish architects O'Donnell & Tuomey on Stratford Waterfront.

According to V&A director Tristram Hunt, the goal is to "open the V&A's collection up in new ways to audiences which have historically been underserved by major cultural institutions." After years of pandemic-related delays, labor supply issues, and the enormous challenge of launching two complex buildings simultaneously, the museum site will finally welcome the public next spring.

The project is a crucial component of East Bank, London Mayor's £1.1 billion cultural and education quarter designed to transform the former Olympic boroughs as part of the London 2012 legacy. V&A East joins other prestigious institutions including Sadler's Wells East, London College of Fashion, UCL East, and BBC Music Studios. When asked about funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Casely-Hayford describes their allocation as "very generous."

Casely-Hayford's vision for V&A East targets young, creatively minded individuals who may not be ready for the main South Kensington V&A but have outgrown Young V&A, which serves children under 14. He believes east London provides the perfect setting, as it has traditionally served as the capital's manufacturing and design base and has produced "some of the truly great creative figures" like Alexander McQueen and David Bailey. His goal is to identify equivalent talent in younger generations and make V&A East their gateway to the arts.

To ensure authentic community engagement, Casely-Hayford has personally visited every single secondary school in the four surrounding boroughs over the past five years. The broader project has consulted approximately 30,000 young people, whose input has influenced every aspect of the institution, from the permanent collection to staff uniforms (a burgundy waistcoat with a cinched back that allows for personal customization). The project's staffing also reflects the area's demographic diversity, with Casely-Hayford emphasizing that "this is a space that belongs to them."

The museum's permanent collection, titled "Why We Make," explores the fundamental human impulse to create. "Before we walk or talk, we make," Casely-Hayford explains. "It's an impulse that is shared by every culture and across the span of human history." The collection features approximately 500 objects from more than 200 practitioners across over 60 nations, including an "absolutely exquisite" piece by Ecuadorian Guinea Spanish ceramicist Bisila Noha, a pink dress by local designer Molly Goddard, and textiles from postwar Trinidadian designer Althea McNish.

Hunt describes the approach as having "radically reinterpreted the V&A's world-class collections through a contemporary lens," allowing exploration of topics that matter to their audiences, such as representation, identity, wellbeing, craft practice, and social justice. Casely-Hayford states that V&A East will be "unapologetically diverse," arguing that the idea of not trying to make audiences "as broad, as diverse, as universal as possible" contradicts the mission of national museums.

The first temporary exhibition, "The Music Is Black," will take visitors on an odyssey through 125 years of Black British music history, covering genres from calypso and hip-hop to reggae and drill. While Casely-Hayford remains tight-lipped about specific contents, he confirms that Seal, Shirley Bassey, Stormzy, and Little Simz will all feature, along with the first guitar owned by Joan Armatrading, whom he describes as a personal hero.

Regarding the complex issue of looted artifacts, Casely-Hayford has been a leading advocate for repatriation. He expresses pride that the V&A is among museums actively returning objects, particularly through their program with Ghana. "We're limited by statute in the ways we can engage with these collections, so they are returned on loan, and are on display in the Manhyia Palace Museum at this very moment," he explains.

On the sensitive topic of ethical funding and corporate sponsorship, Casely-Hayford is more cautious but committed to scrutiny. "Ethical funding is something that concerns everyone who works in museums," he says. "And of course, we would want to be deeply scrupulous about any institution, company or partner that we engage with."

Casely-Hayford comes from the prominent Casely-Hayford dynasty, descended from J.E. Casely-Hayford, a 19th-century politician and writer who advocated for pan-African nationalism. His Ghanaian father Victor was a trained lawyer who worked as an accountant, while his Sierra Leonean mother Ransolina worked for the British Council, both immigrants to Britain. His accomplished siblings include Margaret, former chancellor of Coventry University, Peter, an executive producer of BBC's Panorama, and Joe, a pioneering fashion designer who died of cancer in 2019 and was celebrated in Somerset House's 2023 exhibition "The Missing Thread."

Speaking about his late brother Joe, Casely-Hayford becomes emotional: "I absolutely adored him, he was my inspiration. The other day I was looking at my bookshelves. I have a range of very old art books and when I opened them up, every single one was a present from him."

Casely-Hayford's diverse career includes presenting the BBC series "Lost Kingdoms of Africa," authoring books on West African art, and serving as director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington D.C. (he notes it "breaks my heart to see the Trumpian persecution of his former colleagues' work"). His museum career began after completing his PhD in African history from SOAS University of London, joining the learning department of the British Museum—the same institution where Margaret first told him about the possibility of change.

At the British Museum, he staged Africa 05, the largest African arts season ever hosted in Britain, engaging 150 cultural institutions in what he describes as "a particular moment in 2005 when we celebrated Africa and its history." This project also served as a disruption to the traditionally conservative museum sector. "Museums, by their very nature, are conservative," he observes. "They don't just hold the past. But many people within museums reify aspects of it." The experience taught him "that you can make the changes that seem to be impossible."

Casely-Hayford describes V&A East as "the greatest project of his career," fulfilling his aim to make institutions "which were founded for all of us universally accessible." He believes these spaces "tell our stories through the best things that humanity has ever created." In his vision, the arts represent humanity's attempt to "make a mark that we hope will outlast us," and creativity offers "one of the few ways in which we can really know what other people are feeling, rather than thinking alone." Museums, he concludes, are "repositories of the finest of those impulses," with V&A East Museum scheduled to open its doors on April 18, 2026.