S6E4: Tiny apertures of opportunity... Gus Casely-Hayford, Director, V&A East

Episode
Written By 3 Bells Admin

Guest

Gus Casely-Hayford

In conversation with

Adrian Ellis

Ahead of the opening of V&A East on 18 April 2026, Adrian Ellis speaks with its Director, Gus Casely-Hayford, about involving young people in shaping the institution, widening access, and creating the kinds of transformative opportunities that can change futures.

Date of Recording

12 March 2026

Date of Publication

9 April 2026

[00:00:00]
Gus Casely-Hayford: There are tiny apertures of opportunity, tiny moments, when you can change a young person's life and their trajectory. And so, I am hoping that this will be a space, a platform for young people to come in, to have fun, to open their eyes to new opportunities and horizons – and perhaps amongst them might be people for whom that is a transformative opportunity that they can engage with something, processes, opportunity with disciplines that they might then want to go on to explore in their educational or their professional lives.

[00:00:41]
THEME MUSIC

[00:00:46]
Adrian Ellis: Hello, and welcome to The Three Bells. This podcast is part of the sixth season produced by AEA Consulting for the Global Cultural Districts Network. The focus is, as always, the relationship between cultural and urban life, and the ways in which cultural life contributes to urban vitality and vice versa.

The series and supporting materials can be found at www.thethreebells.net. And if you like our content, please subscribe and give us a positive review on your favourite podcast listening platform. I'm Adrian Ellis, the chair of GCDN and a director of AEA Consulting.

I'm thrilled to interview and talk to Dr. Augustus Casely-Hayford OBE, and as somebody who I've known well for, I think probably, Gus, 20 years. I am indeed going to, if I may, just call you Gus!

So, thank you and thank you for um, this interview at a quite a busy time. I think you are sandwiched as I understand it, between, opening the, uh, V&A East Storehouse last year and imminently opening the museum. And we are going to talk about that if we may, and what it means both for East London, for the V&A, and more generally, the significance of these two buildings, if you like, and their larger agendas. But first I'd love to talk a bit more about you.

So, you have had an almost Zelig-like career. You have been a broadcaster. You've been, I think when we first met you were working on arts policy at the Arts Council of England. You have run part of the Smithsonian and then you returned to the to the UK and V&A. Can you just tell me a bit about the through line?

[00:02:32]
Gus Casely-Hayford: Can I begin by saying how lovely it is to join you, Adrian? And we haven't been kind of constant presences in each other's lives, but you have been someone who I've kind of followed and admired, and you've always been someone who's been very generous with advice over the last couple of decades, and I have really kind of valued that.

And it's just absolutely wonderful to join you here today.

…

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External Links

About our Guest

Gus Casely-Hayford is Director of V&A East. A curator and cultural historian, he joined the V&A in March 2020. He writes, lectures, and broadcasts widely on culture, and was previously Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. +

3 Bells Admin
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