Role Details
Role: Assistant Curator, V&A East
Team: Curatorial
Contract: Permanent
Salary: £28,520 to £32,952
Hours: 36, Monday to Friday with some flexible working
Location: V&A East Storehouse, V&A East Museum
Application Deadline: Midnight Sunday 11 January 2026
About V&A East
V&A East is dedicated to creative opportunity and its power to bring change. Two free cultural destinations – V&A East Storehouse and Museum – will open up the V&A collection for all, celebrate making in all its forms and create new possibilities for everyone.
- V&A East Museum celebrates making and creativity’s power to bring change. Created with young people and rooted in east London’s heritage, it explores what’s shaping the world with the voices leading contemporary culture.
- V&A East Storehouse is a unique new museum experience opening up the V&A collection to everyone, offering behind-the-scenes access to make new discoveries, explore untold stories and share ideas.
Values and Inclusion
- Equality, diversity, and inclusion are integrated consistently and naturally into all activities.
- The organisation is open, tolerant, and diverse and aims to welcome a broader audience and develop a more diverse workforce.
- The V&A values are Equity, Sustainability, Generosity, Collaboration and Creativity.
- Disability Confident: commitment to guaranteeing an interview for applicants who identify as having a disability and meet the minimum criteria for the post; recruiting managers are notified and reasonable adjustments are discussed if shortlisted.
Role Summary
The Assistant Curator, V&A East will be joining the project at an exciting time:
- Less than a year into the opening of the world-first V&A East Storehouse
- On the eve of opening the new V&A East Museum. The role supports V&A East’s ongoing mission to platform creativity and give meaningful and equitable access to collections, working confidently and creatively across the V&A’s varied collection and with local creative communities and stakeholders from across the V&A family of sites.
Key Responsibilities
Curatorial Display
- Coordinating the seasonal re-hangs of V&A East Storehouse displays
- Coordinating the Why We Make Gallery’s film room
- Coordinating the X-Select displays
- Coordinating guest curated zones of the David Bowie Centre
- Managing changes of display in the David Bowie Centre
Maintenance
- Monitoring display objects for rotations for collection care needs
- Managing ad hoc changes to V&A East Storehouse displays as objects are needed elsewhere across the family of sites
Project Management
- Supporting the Senior Curator(s) in devising and overseeing display and gallery changes
- Ensuring alignment with V&A schedules and processes
Collection Research
- Approaching the V&A’s collection with curiosity
- Deploying rigorous research skills to seek out new stories resonant with audiences and contemporary artistic practice
- Opening up collections with and for collaborative partners and artists
Cross-Departmental Coordination
- Liaising regularly with colleagues in collections care, marketing, communications, development, design, digital, VARI, conservation, tech services, loans, security, and health and safety
Artist Network Cultivation
- Building networks through attendance at exhibitions, galleries, performances and other cultural events
- Cultivating new, diverse and high-quality networks of contemporary practitioners and cultural organisations
Commissions and Live Programme
- Supporting the Senior Curator(s) through regular commissioning of artists
- Supporting delivery of live programme such as Look What I Found and How We Made It
Budget Management
- Supporting the Senior Curator(s) in managing all budgets related to gallery spaces and displays at V&A East
- Tracking and overseeing payments and expenditures
Person Specification
- Education to degree-level, preferably relevant to the job, or equivalent experience
- Demonstrable knowledge and interest in contemporary artistic practice and the V&A’s broad collections
- Practical and organisational skills with keen attention to detail, particularly record keeping and project management
- Ability to set priorities and manage a number of tasks concurrently
- High level of manual dexterity and ability to acquire and apply essential core technical skills such as lifting, carrying and installing objects
- Highly motivated with ability to demonstrate initiative
- Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate as part of a team and work flexibly and calmly under pressure
- Excellent standard of written English and numeric ability to perform a range of calculations
- Experience of communicating clearly, with ability to adapt communication style for different groups
- Transferable skills welcomed; not necessarily someone with a conventional museum background
Behaviours and Attributes
- Respects others’ expertise, time, perspectives and contribution
- Takes responsibility for delivering actions, achieving high standards and learning from mistakes
- Open to change, new ideas and suggestions; looks for opportunities for improvement and self-development
- Works with others outside their department in a collaborative, understanding and engaging way
- Shares the values of Sustainability, Equity, Creativity, Collaboration and Generosity
- Has an understanding of the local environment and target V&A East audience
- Preferably lives in one of the local boroughs (Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest
