What's on at the V&A in 2023?
Updated: Sep 28
It's the world's leading museum of art, design and performance so it's no wonder you want to find out what's on at the V&A.
The V&A museum exhibitions are always blockbuster, and offer some of the most eclectic range of subjects under one roof in the whole of London. This year is no different.
Unfortunately, you've already missed the museum's exhibition's on the sculptor Donatello, the phenomenon that is Hallyu! The Korean Wave, and their survey of Africa fashion, but there is still plenty of exciting things to see at the V&A in 2023. So here's what's you can enjoy.
Re:Imagining Musicals
Now open
Don't let life rain on your parade. Strut down to this free display at the Victoria and Albert Museum which explores how some of the best-loved musicals have been adapted, revived, and retold. Don't wait one day more.
Visitors can celebrate the vibrant world of musical theatre and explore the cultural significance of some of the industry’s most iconic stories. On display are some 100 objects — the majority of which are being displayed for the first time — which bring together brand-new acquisitions and unseen classics in the V&A’s Theatre and Performance Galleries.
Highlights include: Eliza Doolittle’s beaded gown designed by Cecil Beaton and worn by Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady, new costume acquisitions including Miss Hannigan’s dress, wig and whistle worn by Paul O’Grady in the 1998 West End revival of Annie and donated to the museum especially for the display, and Jamie New’s costume designed by Anna Fleischle for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
DIVA
Open until 7 April 2024
The 'diva' label has been given to countless female performers over the years, from Barbra Streisand to Ariana Grande. And it usually isn't a compliment. But this summer, the V&A will reclaim the term in this major exhibition.
DIVA will be a huge new show opening at the South Kensington museum, and it promises to celebrate the power and creativity of iconic performers. From the Opera goddesses of the Victorian era to today’s global megastars, it'll explore and redefine what it means to be a diva and how this has been subverted or embraced over time.
On display will be objects from fashion, design, photography, music, costumes and live performance, brought together from the V&A collection and loans from across the world.
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Thomas J Price at the V&A
Open until 27 May 2024
Leading sculptor Thomas J Price is celebrated for his arresting yet contemplative sculptures depicting everyday individuals. His display here — which is completely free to visit — sees these ideas in dialogue with objects from the V&A’s historic collection.
In total, eight works by Price are installed throughout the museum. Visitors can see large-scale sculptures which depict amalgamated ‘ordinary’ people. They represent different individuals he has encountered in the streets of London, and are described as a celebration of connection and shared humanity.
Highlights include Signals, placed in Room 25 of the sculpture galleries next to Vincenzo Foggini’s Samson and the Philistines and depicting a young man holding his phone up to the sky, searching for mobile connection. Plus Lay It Down (On the Edge of Beauty) is a larger-than-life sculptor of the head of a woman made of a polished bronze that shines like gold.
Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto
Opens 16 September 2023
She's a design icon, and her ultimate legacy is that of one of the world's biggest fashion houses. Now, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel is getting the exhibition treatment.
In September 2023, the Victoria and Albert Museum will stage the first UK exhibition dedicated to the work of the French designer. It'll chart the evolution of Coco Chanel's iconic design style and the establishment of the House of CHANEL. Visitors will get to explore over 200 looks which will be seen together for the first time. For many Chanel-lovers, the highlight will undoubtedly be the fifty ensembles of the iconic Chanel suit, the defining garment of Gabrielle Chanel’s post-war contribution to fashion.
Other key pieces on display will include outfits created for British model Anne Gunning (later Lady Nutting) and Hollywood stars Lauren Bacall and Marlene Dietrich. Early tickets are now sold out, but more go on sale in June.
Read more about the V&A Chanel exhibition