The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has announced a national tour of its David Bowie archive, featuring over 100 items from the 90,000-piece collection. The exhibition, titled David Bowie: On Tour, will begin at V&A Dundee in November and travel to venues across the UK, including Blackpool, County Durham, Hull, and Bristol.
Highlights include Kansai Yamamoto's Ziggy Stardust costumes, Bowie's Berlin apartment keys, his childhood saxophone, and a rejected script for The Simpsons. The archive reveals Bowie as "an artist in constant motion," according to curator Harriet Reed, showcasing his work beyond music and images.
The exhibition is divided into four sections: Bowie Through a Lens explores photography's role in shaping his identity; All the Somebody People covers studio and stage work, including handwritten notes for albums like Ziggy Stardust and Blackstar; Hooked to the Silver Screen examines his film career, with items from Labyrinth and The Snowman; and I Can't Give Everything Away looks at Bowie's own archiving habits, featuring fan art, passports, and plans for unrealized projects.
V&A director Sir Tristram Hunt called the tour a "landmark national partnership," aiming to bring Bowie's story to places connected to his life. The tour follows a successful 2013 exhibition that traveled globally, and the permanent Bowie Centre opened at V&A East Storehouse in London last September.
