V&A East’s plans to shake up the art world with community-inspired museum and storehouse
Gus Casely-Hayford is a man on a mission to open up and diversify the arts sector.
As founding director of V&A East – one of the world’s most significant new museum projects and part of the mayor of London’s £1.1bn Olympic legacy project – he knows that shifting the canon won’t necessarily be easy.
V&A East Museum in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Pic: Victoria & Albert Museum
Casely-Hayford told Sky News: “There are challenges that we have in this country… Years of museum tradition based around particular narratives.
“There’s a fairly conservative bedrock upon which we have to begin to build new narratives. Think about how we can actually include voices that it may have felt acceptable to marginalise a generation ago.”
Based in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, V&A East will bring two brand new arts venues to East London – a five-storey, 7,000 square meter museum on the waterfront, and a vast glass and brick storehouse, offering more than 250,000 curated items for public view, just a 10-minute walk away.
Balenciaga inspired
Based on an X-Ray of a Balenciaga ballgown, and informally dubbed “the crab”, the museum will form part of a new cultural quarter collectively known as East Bank, nestling alongside a Sadler’s Wells dance theatre, BBC recording and performance studios and UAL’s London College of Fashion.
In a world where many consider the arts to be for the privileged few rather than the many, Casely-Hayford says his bid to highlight under-represented voices is clear cut.
He said: “These are our spaces paid for with our tax money. We should all be getting the benefit.”
Having moved back from the US to take up the role (he was previously director of the Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art in Washington DC), Casely-Hayford has applied a fresh view to the British art scene.
X-ray of a silk taffeta Balenciaga evening dress, Paris, 1954. Pic: Nick Veasey, 2016
He said: “Art is one of the things that we do better than anyone else. You look at the sorts of people who represent us best at the Oscars or in music, and they represent the cultural diversity of our nation.
“I would love it if in the museum sector, if we could really get on board with that, invest in that, but not just do it in terms of the art that we display on our walls, but also the people who curate our spaces.”
The Global South
The museum will collect work from around the world, prioritising issues from the Global South – Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
And far from being a modern obsession or trendy buzzword, Casely-Hayford believes diversity is woven into the very fabric of being British.
An early concept image for V&A East Museum. Pic: JA Projects
He said: “The thing that makes me proud is that we are a diverse nation. You think about our national flag, that we didn’t choose a tricolour.
“We chose a flag which demonstrates the differences and how we come together, that we are a number of different nations. We accept diversity, complexity, and we want our space to be able to tell those stories.
“All of that cultural complexity, the stories of empire, of enslavement, of all these difficult things. But also, the transcendent stories of how through creativity, we can come together as one.
“We can be a single nation that celebrates greatness, goodness, that celebrates the sorts of things that inspire a new generation.”
‘An engine of transformation’
And he says aside from artists and curator diversity, attention must be turned to both the visitors and staff of the museum too.
“We want to build this institution from the ground up, for and with our local communities. We want it to reflect their need,” he said.
“When it opens in 2025 and you come into our space, I’m hoping that you’ll be welcomed by people who demonstrate the kind of cultural complexity of the people that live in and around this area.”
Not a man to rest on his laurels, he’s quite literally got on his bike to share news of the new spaces to secondary schools in the area, in a bid to talk to 100,000 young people.
Dystopia to Utopia performance. Pic: V&A/Antony Jones
It is his ambition that one of the children who walks through the museum doors will go on to have their art on the walls, or even one day claim his job.
Calling the spaces “an engine of transformation”, he wants the younger generation to see the creative industries as a viable profession, as he says, “not from the margins, not feeling they’re part of the peripheral, but right in the bedrock of institutions like V&A East”.
Holding institutions to account
Ahead of these potential new opportunities, emerging artist Heather Agyepong says the last two years have been transformational in black British art, offering her a position of power as an artist for the first time.
Heather Agyepong, visual artist and actor. Pic: Hydar Dewachi
She told Sky News: “I think since George Floyd was murdered, and the black uprisings, there’s been a real thirst and a kind of embarrassment about the lack of black British art in collections.
“In 2020, all of these institutions gave these massive pleas and dedications to include more black British art, which has been amazing. But I think now, two years on, you’re seeing that some of it was a little bit performative, or for optics.
“For me as an artist now, I feel I can hold those intuitions accountable because they made all of these claims, and I can go back and say, ‘what are you doing to address your collections? What are you doing to address the inclusion of black British art?’
“I feel quite empowered now, as an artist moving forward.”
However, she admits she wasn’t always as clued up about the rich heritage of the UK’s black artists.
Ego death at Jerwood Space, supported by Photoworks. Pic: Anna Arca
She said: “I did an MA at Goldsmiths in 2013, and that was my first introduction to black British art, before then, I think I didn’t even know black British artists existed, if I’m honest.
“My course convenor, Paul Halliday, opened my eyes to what that whole movement looked like. And I remember, I was just stunned, and I felt like, ‘why did no one tell me this?’, because I always felt I was by myself. So, that course was really instrumental in understanding the legacy of us as artists.”
‘Small and in the corner’
Speaking about her latest exhibition, Ego Death, which includes oversized fabric triptychs, one inspired by Oscar winning film Get Out, she says: “There’s a thing sometimes about black artists, we feel like we can’t take up space, that we’ve kind of got to be small and in the corner. Be kind of apologetic.”
She credits artists including Turner Prize winning Lubaina Himid, Sonya Boyce and Claudette Johnson – who all came to prominence during the UK Black Arts movement (BAM) of the 1980s – as “paving the way” for her, adding: “I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Lisa Anderson, managing director of the Black Cultural Archives
Lisa Anderson, managing director of the Black Cultural Archives (BCA), also credits the movement with inspiring her to pursue a career in the arts.
For her latest exhibition, Transforming Legacies, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of BAM, she reunited more than 50 artists of African and Caribbean ancestry to recreate the iconic 1958 A Great Day In Harlem photo.
Anderson says improving representation across the board is a matter of teamwork.
“We need allyship as well. We need collaboration from galleries, other researchers, universities, auction houses so that they can validate and support the growth of the work from these artists,” she said.
Black British artists gather for a photograph inspired by Art Kane’s A Great Day in Harlem. Pic: David Kwaw Mensah
Culture wars
As government funding has dried up, sustained support needed to give communities a level footing has dropped away.
But in the face of adversity, Anderson is hopeful: “We’re in the midst of a culture war with some key figures in the government questioning the importance of equality and inclusion and questions of diversity. So, it is very discombobulating.
“But I think the momentum for focus on artists from the African diaspora in a meaningful, inclusive way is something to be hopeful about. I’m definitely going to be joining hands with other organisations, other key leaders within the UK and internationally to keep that going for the long term.
“What would be horrendous, is if 20 years from now, we’re having to have a similar conversation. I don’t want that to be the case. I just want this conversation to expand.”
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V&A East Storehouse will open in 2024 and V&A East Museum will open in spring 2025.
Transforming Legacies is on show at Black Cultural Archives, Brixton, until 31st January 2023.
Heather Agyepong’s, Ego Death exhibition was first shown at the Jerwood Space, London, in 2022 and will tour to Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland, in 2023. Her solo exhibition, Wish You Were Here, will be showing at the new Centre for British Photography from January and her work will be included in Photo50 at the London Art Fair in the new year. She will also be appearing in Amazon Prime’s forthcoming thriller The Power.
Shirley Valentine actress Pauline Collins has died “peacefully”, aged 85, surrounded by her family.
The actress, who starred in the first series of sitcom The Liver Birds, and became a household name in Upstairs Downstairs, had Parkinson’s disease for several years.
Her later role in the 1989 film Shirley Valentine, playing the lead character of the bored Liverpudlian housewife, earned her an Oscar nomination.
‘Iconic, strong-willed’
Her family said in a statement: “Pauline was so many things to so many people, playing a variety of roles in her life. A bright, sparky, witty presence on stage and screen. Her illustrious career saw her play politicians, mothers and queens.
“She will always be remembered as the iconic, strong-willed, vivacious and wise Shirley Valentine – a role that she made all her own.
“We were familiar with all those parts of her because her magic was contained in each one of them.
“More than anything, though, she was our loving mum, our wonderful grandma and great-grandma. Warm, funny, generous, thoughtful, wise, she was always there for us.
“And she was John (Alderton)’s life-long love. A partner, work collaborator, and wife of 56 years.
“We particularly want to thank her carers: angels who looked after her with dignity, compassion, and most of all love.
“She could not have had a more peaceful goodbye. We hope you will remember her at the height of her powers; so joyful and full of energy; and give us the space and privacy to contemplate a life without her.”
Receiving her OBE from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2001. Pic: PA
She married fellow actor John Alderton in 1969.
‘Nation’s sweetheart’
He described her as a “remarkable star”.
Collins with, from left, Sheridan Smith, Dame Maggie Smith, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Courtenay and Billy Connolly at the London Film Festival in 2012: Pic: PA
He said he worked with her more than any other actor in TV series, films and West End stage shows, and had “watched her genius at close quarters”.
He added: “What I saw was not only her brilliant range of diverse characters but her magic of bringing out the best in all of the people she worked with. She wanted everyone to be special and she did this by never saying ‘Look at me’.
“It’s no wonder that she was voted the nation’s sweetheart in the 1970s.
“She will always be remembered for Shirley Valentine, not only for her Oscar nomination or the film itself, but for clean-sweeping all seven awards when she portrayed her on Broadway in the stage play, in which she played every character herself.
“But her greatest performance was as my wife and mother to our beautiful children.”
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Born in Exmouth in 1940, Collins was raised near Liverpool and began her career as a teacher.
But after taking up acting part-time, she landed her first television role as a nurse in the series Emergency Ward 10.
Collins also won great acclaim for her role in 1997 film Paradise Road, which tells the story of a group of women in a Japanese prisoner of war camp who defy their captors by founding an orchestra.
The film also starred Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett and Frances McDormand.
In 2001, Collins was made an OBE for her services to drama.
Entertainment
‘Posh boys’ playing gangsters: Eddie Marsan on TV and film industry’s obsession with upper-class actors
Over the last two decades, Eddie Marsan has established himself as one of Britain’s most versatile and acclaimed character actors. From major blockbusters like the Sherlock Holmes films and Mission: Impossible III, to his roles on the TV series Ray Donovan, and more recently the sci-fi drama Supacell.
As a performer, he is a skilled observer. And one thing he’s come to notice a lot over the years is how few of his castmates tend to share his working-class roots.
“If you want to be an actor in this country, and you come from a disadvantaged background, you have to be exceptional to have a hope of a career,” he says. “If you come from a privileged background, you can be mediocre.”
Speaking after being named one of the new vice presidents of drama school Mountview, and meeting students at the establishment where he too first trained, Marsan is keen to stress why it’s so necessary to support young actors who can’t fund their careers.
Eddie Marsan at Mountview. Pic: Steve Gregson
“I came here when I was in my 20s… I was a bit lost, to be honest… I was serving an apprenticeship as a printer when Mountview offered me a place,” he says.
“There were no kinds of grants then, so for the first year an East End bookmaker paid my fees, then my mum and him got together and paid the second year, then Mountview gave me a scholarship for the third year, so I owe them everything.
“I didn’t earn a living as an actor for like six, seven years… years ago, actors could sign on and basically go on the dole while doing plays… now, in order to become an actor, you have to have the bank of mummy and daddy to bankroll you for those seven or eight years when you’re not going to earn a living.”
Marson and Dame Elaine Paige are both taking on ambassadorial roles to mark Mountview’s 80th anniversary, joining Dame Judi Dench, who has been president of the school since 2006.
“The parties are fantastic,” he jokes. “The two dames, they get so half-cut, honestly, you have to get an Uber to get them home!”
But he’s rather more serious about TV and film’s “fashion for posh boys”.
‘If you come from a privileged background you can be mediocre’ in the TV and film industry, says Marsan. Pic: Steve Gregson
“When I went to America and I did 21 Grams and Vera Drake. I remember thinking, ‘great I’m going to have a career now,’ but I wasn’t the idea of what Britain was selling of itself.
“Coming back from Hollywood, a publicist said to me ‘when we get to London and do publicity for the film 21 Grams we’re going to come to you’… but no one was interested… I remember coming to Waterloo station and looking up and seeing all these posh actors selling Burberry coats and posters, and they hadn’t done anything compared to what I’d done, and yet they were the image that we were pushing as a country.”
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A 2024 Creative Industries, Policy, and Evidence Centre report found 8% of British actors come from working class backgrounds, compared to 20% in the 70s and 80s.
“Even a gangster movie now, 40 years ago you would have something like The Long Good Friday or Get Carter with people like Michael Caine or Bob Hoskins who were real working-class actors playing those parts, now you have posh boys playing working-class characters.”
Within the last five or six years, he says there has at least been “more of an effort to include people of colour”.
Pic: Steve Gregson
‘They’re scared of a level-playing field’
“What I find really interesting is, I’ve been an actor for 34 years, and I remember for the first 20 years going on a set and very rarely within the crew and within the cast would you see a black face, very rarely.
“One of the saving graces really are things now like Top Boy and Supacell, where you have members of the black community making dramas about their communities, that can’t be co-opted by the middle classes.”
“People like Laurence Fox complaining that it’s unfair, I never heard them complain when you never saw a black face, never once did they say anything. Now that people are trying to address it, they think it’s unfair…because they’re scared of a level playing field.”
Now, more than ever, Marsan says he feels compelled to point out what needs to change within the industry he works in.
“Look, social media is destroying cultural discourse. It’s making people become very binary… acting and drama is an exercise in empathy and if there’s one thing that we need more of at the moment it’s that.”
Broadcaster Jeremy Vine has told a jury he felt “wickedly torn down for no reason” by ex-footballer Joey Barton, whose online posts led him to take civil action.
The TV and radio presenter said he intervened to support football commentators Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko after Barton shared an image online of their faces superimposed on to a photograph of notorious serial killers Fred and Rose West.
After a televised FA Cup match between Crystal Palace and Everton in January 2024, the former Manchester City and Newcastle United footballer likened the sports broadcasters to the “Fred and Rose West of commentary”.
Responding to the comment, Vine said on X: “What’s going on with @Joey7Barton? I just glanced at the Rose West thing… genuinely, is it possible we are dealing with a brain injury here?”
Joey Barton arrives at Liverpool Crown Court. Pic: PA
‘I was quite shocked’
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Vine said: “I was quite shocked by what Mr Barton had said about two very respected commentators in Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.
“I thought it was very vicious to impose them on the images of two mass murderers of children, and I was looking for an explanation.
“I said ‘are we dealing with a brain injury here’ as a way of underlining my own feelings that he had crossed the line on that tweet.”
Barton, 43, is currently standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court, accused of posting grossly offensive messages on X aimed at the three broadcasters, allegedly with the intent to cause distress or anxiety.
The court heard that Mr Barton replied to Vine’s tweet with a post referring to him as “you big bike nonce”.
The defendant, who has 2.7 million followers on X, also made references to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Jeremy Vine. Pic: PA
‘This now gets really serious’
Vine told the prosecutor he felt “very alarmed” that Mr Barton was choosing “this word ‘nonce’ to throw around” and that “this was now escalating”.
“This now gets really serious. He is accusing me of being a paedophile,” he said.
“These are disgusting actions. It’s a despicable thing to say.
“It gravely upset me, and I had a sleepless night that night.”
As more posts followed, Vine “began to feel scared”.
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Vine said: “I realised I had to take some action, but I was not sure what to do. I realised the quickest remedy would be some sort of civil action.”
Civil proceedings were initiated in March 2024. A week later, a post from Mr Barton’s X account stated: “If anyone has any information about Jeremy Vine – pictures, screenshots, videos, or messages that could help us in the case – please send them to me using the hashtag #bikenonce.”
Jurors heard that in June 2024, Barton agreed to pay Mr Vine £75,000 in damages for defamation and harassment, along with his legal expenses, as the two parties reached a settlement in the civil case.
In a separate agreement, Barton also paid Vine an additional £35,000 in damages and legal costs relating to similar issues.
The court was told that Mr Barton issued a public apology on his X account in June 2024, admitting that he had made a “very serious allegation” on social media.
He denies the offences said to have been committed between January and March 2024.
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