Last week, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London announced that it has secured the archive of David Bowie for the nation thanks to a £10m donation from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group. In a press release, a spokesperson from the David Bowie Estate said: “With David’s life’s work becoming part of the UK’s national collections, he takes his rightful place amongst many other cultural icons and artistic geniuses.”
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The archive includes more than 80,000 items that span the whole of Bowie’s career, from the 1960s to his death in 2016. Featured in the collection are handwritten lyrics, letters, costumes, photographs, films, instruments, awards and personal memorabilia, along with intimate writings and notebooks never seen by the public before. Part of the archive also includes items from the ‘David Bowie Is’ international exhibition that took place from 2013 to 2018, which featured iconic stage costumes such as the Ziggy Stardust jumpsuit designed by Freddie Burretti in 1972, Kansai Yamamoto’s designs for the Aladdin Sane tour in 1973, and the Union Jack coat designed by Bowie and Alexander McQueen for the Earthling album cover in 1997. Other highlights are handwritten lyrics for some of Bowie’s most famous songs, including Fame (1975), Heroes (1977) and Ashes to Ashes (1980).
“David Bowie was one of the greatest musicians and performers of all time,” commented Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A. “The V&A is thrilled to become custodians of his incredible archive, and to be able to open it up for the public. Bowie’s radical innovations across music, theatre, film, fashion, and style – from Berlin to Tokyo to London – continue to influence design and visual culture and inspire creatives from Janelle Monáe to Lady Gaga to Tilda Swinton and Raf Simons. Our new collections centre, V&A East Storehouse, is the ideal place to put Bowie’s work in dialogue with the V&A’s collection spanning 5,000 years of art, design, and performance. My deepest thanks go to the David Bowie Estate, Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group for helping make this a reality and for providing a new sourcebook for the Bowies of tomorrow.”
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The archive will reside in The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts, also made possible by the donation, at the V&A East Storehouse, in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It will be open to the public in 2025.
