Grace Prideaux reports on the APAC Study Day held at the V&A East Storehouse on 3rd July 2026. Grace was a recipient of APAC’s Travel Grant which enabled her to travel to the event.
This July on the 3rd of the month, I had the absolute pleasure and delight of attending my very first APAC Study Day at the store house that my dreams were made of -The V&A East Storehouse in Hackney Wick. Ever since I stumbled upon the early ideas for this storehouse in 2021 during my Museum Studies course, I have been eager to find out more and had lots of excitement to go!
As I left the train station in Hackney Wick and slowly but surely saw the huge HereEast sign on top of the building, I knew this would be a visit to remember!
The day began by meeting all the fab members of APAC outside of the huge scaling building that is the V&A East Storehouse. We were able to gain access to the building from 10am and met our wonderful host for the day James White, Curator of Theatre in the entrance of the building. The foyer included the lockers, café, notice board with the events of the day and a small pop-up shop. I was immediately greeted by the sheer scale of the collection here due to the welcome sign which gave various numbers relating to the collection.
Entry into the main section of the building first requires storing your belongings in a self-coded locker system. It was also very freeing to go into a museum space without carrying a bag along for the ride the entire day.
We were led into the glass floored section of Level 1 of The Weston Collections Hall – which was equally spectacular and enlightening! I was able to not only gawk at everything above my head, but also beneath me as I could see members of the V&A staff conserving the back of a painting beneath glass. The first thing you see as you step into the main lobby of the storehouse itself are these large racks, which have front facing sections which are easily seen from the ground all the way to the top of the building. James told us that a selection of objects at the front and sides of the racks are rotated at 6 month intervals and all departments have the opportunity to suggest ideas for object and groups of materials to display on a given theme. One of the highlights James mentioned to us include one of the biggest items they store here, which is the facade and internal fixtures from a section of the Robin Hood Gardens, London council housing estate from the 1970s.
With around 17 of us in the group in person and 3 online, we were collated as a group in the Archive Study Room for the APAC Meeting. The meeting began through informal introductions of each member around the table; members had come from all across the country, from the National Theatre archives to the Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham to Glyndebourne and the Imagination Museum for this day and it was a real delight to meet so many like-minded theatre and performing arts collections enthusiasts!
Updates from across the Board were shared with everyone including information about upcoming social events like Coffee Roulette which has become increasingly popular as a great way to meet museum professionals in an informal, chatty manner! I have joined these sessions personally and can highly recommend them! Every board member was also incredibly open to suggestions and shaping the upcoming programme of events based on member feedback and encouraged opportunities to shout about their own upcoming events and projects.
After these APAC updates, we moved onto a great presentation by James and his colleagues about the history of Storehouse and how it operates. What a treat it was to get a history lesson about this amazing feat of new museological thinking!
The background behind the new V&A East Storehouse which opened last year on 31st May 2025 is rooted in the Olympic Legacy. This refers to the large-scale planning for all the buildings and venues built specifically to house the Olympic events which happened in London in 2012. Originally the building that now houses the Storehouse, used to be the Olympic Broadcast and Press Centre. The nearby V&A East Museum opened in April 2026 and reflects stories of the communities in East London called the ‘Why We Make’ galleries. During development the museum worked with local communities to shape the story of the galleries and displays in the lead up to its opening. The model of engagement and co-curation had been successfully employed with children and young people during the redevelopment of the Young V&A, reopened in 2023.
One of their highlighted online resources at Storehouse is their Order an Object platform. Some of the most requested items on their Order an Object platform are from the David Bowie Archive, including an Alexander McQueen designed frock coat, whilst one of the most requested non-Bowie objects is a Balenciaga evening dress from 1954. The Order an Object facility allows users to request up to 5 items they can virtually ‘put in their basket’ to then physically view the items at a time that suits them. The really lovely thing about this service is that it is open to everyone, no matter your reasons for viewing request; whether research or academic intentions or just wanting to view some cool things because you can!
We were then joined by Holly Stepp, who is the Project Archivist for the David Bowie Centre. She proceeded to do a deep dive into the goings-on of his archive and how it came to be here. Holly told us that the David Bowie Archive acquisition was initiated following the success of the V&A ‘David Bowie Is’ exhibition in 2013, which toured the world until 2018. The archive of around 90,000 items was acquired in 2024 and contains a range of items like photographic material, handwritten lyrics, notes, press material – amongst many others. During his lifetime Bowie collected and preserved material and in the 1990s, he hired his own personal team to catalogue and preserve his archive – the care and consideration of not only the Storehouse, but Bowie himself in preserving his legacy was just incredible. There were even some post it notes on some items he had written on that Holly showed us which were notes to future collections teams who may hold his archive in the future! How cool is that?!
Holly’s project involved cataloguing the material for the V&A’s collection, which took a dedicated team of 6 cataloguers (3 object and 3 archive), 6 conservators, 2 photographers and 1 costume mounter. The work also involved receiving new shipments, unpacking, rehousing and installing the collection in the Storehouse whilst also mounting items to show in the David Bowie Centre (an area within the Storehouse which is its own curated display area). I was in absolute awe of the amount of work they have completed in only 2 years since acquiring his archive – so impressive!
Some of the items we were able to view on this day included some of his concept art for a musical inspired by his album ‘Lazarus’ as well as his handwritten notepads and lyrics. One notebook in particular had his handwritten lyrics for the song ‘Ziggy Stardust’.
We were able to have a good look around after James and Holly’s presentations and one of my favourite items was the backcloth for the ballet ‘The Firebird’ from 1926, which was designed by Natalia Goncharova. The sheer size and presentation of the backcloth filled the entire room from floor to ceiling and urged me to find out more about this production. ‘The Firebird’ backcloth measures a ginormous height of 1024 cm and width of 1571 cm – it is quite the spectacle, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it!
In summary, it was a truly delightful day, and I really enjoyed getting to explore the stacks of the Storehouse and meeting museum professionals. It was great to feel connected to the practice that we are all involved in and share in the projects that we are all working on. Thank you to both James and Holly for facilitating the day and to APAC for welcoming me on this visit – it was wonderful!
Grace Prideaux is the Collections Officer at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
For more information on the V&A East Storehouse:
For more information on applying for an APAC Travel Grant, head over to our grants and bursaries page, here.
Gallery
What connects our members’ collections? Here we put a spotlight on some of the curious themes that tie us together.