This center will bring together tens of thousands of archives from the musician’s career, from handwritten lyrics to scores and costumes.
Costumes, photos, letters, more than 80,000 pieces from the David Bowie archives have been sent to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which will open a dedicated location in London in 2025, the museum announced on Thursday.
The creation of this David Bowie Center for the Study of Performing Art, in East London, will provide unprecedented access to a fund that traces “the creative process of a musical innovator, a cultural icon” for the general public as well as researchers, the museum said in a press release.
It will bring together pieces including handwritten lyrics, letters, scores, instruments and awards, but also costumes like those of Ziggy Stardust from 1972 or creations for the Aladdin Sane tour the following year.
Pop visionary
These archives of the artist who died in 2016 include 70,000 photos, prints, negatives and contact sheets of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, from Terry O’Neill to Brian Duffy via Helmut Newton.
“The V&A is delighted to become the guardian of these incredible archives and to be able to open them to the public,” said museum director Tristram Hunt.
“Bowie’s radical innovations through music, theater, film, fashion and style (…) continue to influence design and visual culture and inspire creators” like Janelle Monáe, Lady Gaga, Tilda Swinton or Raf Simons, he added.
This operation was made possible thanks to the heirs of David Bowie and a donation of 10 million pounds sterling (about 11.4 million euros) from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group.
