From Handwritten Song Lyrics to Costumes: David Bowie’s Massive Archive Is Getting an Exhibition in London
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David Bowie’s estate is officially making some ch-ch-changes. Today, the Victoria and Albert Museum announced that it had acquired the late singer’s archive to put on display starting in 2025, containing over 80,000 items from Bowie’s life that will soon be available for the public to see in person.
The V&A will be creating a new space in which to showcase a lifetime of Bowie’s collected items: The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts at V&A’s East Storehouse. The project is a collaboration between the V&A, the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group, which owns Bowie’s music catalogue. The Blavatnik Foundation and Warner donated £10 million (about $12 million) in order to facilitate the creation of the center and help preserve and study the archive over time, and both organizations shared statements on how proud they were to be assisting in the continuation of Bowie’s legacy after his death in 2016.
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The archive contains a number of highly personal items from Bowie’s life and career, including “intimate notebooks from every era” of his life, handwritten song lyrics for hits like “Fame,” “Heroes” and “Ashes to Ashes,” instruments he played, costumes he wore, personal musings on his career and notes for future projects he hoped to complete. Other seminal items include photos, music videos and set designs never before seen by the public.
Bowie fans can expect to see famed items like Ziggy Stardust costumes, film stills from The Man Who Fell to Earth and the Alexander McQueen Union Jack coat featured on his Earthling album cover, as well as personal items the public never even knew existed.
A spokesperson for the David Bowie estate said that this collection will mark Bowie taking “his rightful place amongst many other cultural icons and artistic geniuses,” and lauded the “behind the scenes access that V&A’s East Storehouse offers.” Other archives housed in the V&A’s Theatre & Performance collections include those of Vivian Leigh, Peter Brook and the Royal Court Theatre.
The V&A previously showcased some items from Bowie’s archive in a 2013 show titled “David Bowie Is…”, an exhibition that was seen by over two million people on an international tour. Tilda Swinton, who knew Bowie well and frequently worked with him, shared her excitement that the V&A would be continuing the project of exhibiting items from the influential musician’s life.
“In 2013, the V&A’s ‘David Bowie Is…’ exhibition gave us unquestionable evidence that Bowie is a spectacular example of an artist, who not only made unique and phenomenal work, but who has an influence and inspiration far beyond that work itself,” she said. “In acquiring his archive for posterity, the V&A will now be able to offer access to David Bowie’s history—and the portal it represents—not only to practicing artists from all fields, but to every last one of us, and for the foreseeable future.”
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