David Bowie Archive to Tour UK with Over 100 Rare Artefacts

The V&A's David Bowie archive will embark on its first national tour this winter, bringing more than 100 pieces—including Kansai Yamamoto's Ziggy Stardust costumes, Bowie's Berlin apartment keys, and his childhood saxophone—to venues across the UK. The exhibition, titled David Bowie: On Tour, commences at the V&A Dundee in November 2026.

Exhibition Highlights and Curatorial Insights

Harriet Reed, V&A contemporary performance curator, described the archive as revealing 'an artist in constant motion—a restless, forward-looking mind at work beyond the music and images we know.' The exhibition draws from the 90,000-item Bowie Centre at the V&A East Storehouse in London, with some items never publicly displayed before.

The show is divided into four sections. 'Bowie Through a Lens' examines photography's role in shaping Bowie's image through works by Mick Rock, Terry O'Neill, Masayoshi Sukita, and Brian Ward. 'All the Somebody People' focuses on studio and stage work, including handwritten notes for albums such as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Lodger, and Blackstar, as well as stage designs from the Let's Dance era and the koto Bowie played on the song 'Moss Garden'.

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Cinematic Works and Archival Instincts

'Hooked to the Silver Screen' explores Bowie's film career, featuring sketches, treatments, contact sheets, clapperboards, and Polaroids from movies including Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, Labyrinth, The Snowman, and even The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Also included is a script for a Simpsons episode that Bowie declined to appear in.

The final section, 'I Can't Give Everything Away', delves into Bowie's own archiving habits: how he preserved his first saxophone and the harmonica mic from his final tour, fan art, a 1988 passport, an early copy of the Velvet Underground's 1967 single 'I'm Waiting for the Man', various lists, inventories, and Post-it notes for future archivists. It also includes song charts and handwritten plans for unrealised projects, such as the TV film The Catastrophe Cabinet.

National Tour and Venue Connections

V&A director Sir Tristram Hunt called the tour a 'landmark national partnership for the V&A,' stating: 'Working with our colleagues in museums and venues nationwide, we're opening up Bowie's story in the places connected to his life and legacy, ensuring people across the country can experience these remarkable objects where they live, and be inspired by his enduring creativity.'

The tour begins in Dundee, where Bowie performed on the Ziggy Stardust tour in 1973. The second stop is Blackpool's Showtown: in 1966, David Bowie and the Buzz performed on the south pier. The third stop, the Bowes Museum in County Durham, has a less direct connection—Bowie played nearby Sunderland in 1987. The exhibition then moves to the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, hometown of his backing band the Spiders from Mars (initially known as the Hype), formed when drummer John Cambridge tracked down Mick Ronson working as a parks department gardener. Bristol, where Bowie performed in 1973 and earlier, is the current final stop, with more venues to be announced.

Previous Bowie Exhibitions and V&A Track Record

The V&A first showcased Bowie's archive in 2013. That exhibition toured globally with 12 stops across Europe, North and South America, Japan, and Australia until 2018. In September 2023, the V&A opened the permanent Bowie Centre at its East Storehouse in east London. Music exhibitions have proven successful for the V&A, with previous shows on Annie Lennox, Taylor Swift, Pink Floyd, club culture, Black British music, and grassroots music venues.