David Bowie’s 80,000-Piece Archive Acquired by V&A Museum
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David Bowie’s archive of more than 80,000 pieces was gifted to Britain’s Victoria & Albert Museum, the London institution announced Thursday, according to AP.
The vast archive contains costumes, photos, letters, musical instruments, and more from the musician’s estate and will be on display in 2025 at The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts in Stratford. The new building, which was also unveiled today, is an extension of the V&A’s East Storehouse and is being built on the site of the 2012 London Olympics.
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The trove spanning David Bowie’s illustrious career also includes “more intimate writings, thought processes and unrealised projects, the majority of which have never been seen in public before,” according to the announcement.
The museum received a 10 million pound ($12 million) donation from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group to store and display the Bowie archive at the new east London location.
Items in the archive were also part of the “David Bowie Is” exhibition that toured the world from 2013 to 2018, per the report, and include the multicolored Ziggy Stardust jumpsuit designed by Freddie Burretti, Kansai Yamamoto’s creations for the 1973 Aladdin Sane tour and the Union Jack coat Bowie and Alexander McQueen designed for the 1997’s “Earthling” album cover.
In April, Peter Murphy will be back on the road to front the Celebrating David Bowie tour alongside guitarist Adrian Belew, Spacehog’s Royston Langdon, a Perfect Circle bassist Matt McJunkins, guitarist Scrote, Devo/A Perfect Circle drummer Jeff Friedl, saxophonist Ron Dziubla and guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. It begins on April 4 in Houston, Texas, and wraps up on May 8 in Tacoma, Washington.
The tour, which is spearheaded by Scrote, has been an ongoing project since 2017. According to a press release, this year’s show will “interpret Bowie’s greatest hits with a special emphasis on Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust proto punk era, his Berlin trilogy records (Low, Heroes, and Lodger) and his later Trent Reznor infused years.”
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