The V&A's David Bowie archive will embark on its first national tour this winter, bringing more than 100 artefacts from the 90,000-item Bowie Centre to venues across the UK. The exhibition, titled David Bowie: On Tour, opens at V&A Dundee in November 2026 and will travel to Blackpool, County Durham, Hull, and Bristol.
Artefacts on display include Ziggy Stardust costumes and handwritten notes
Highlights include Kansai Yamamoto's costumes for Ziggy Stardust, Bowie's Berlin apartment house keys, and his childhood Grafton Alto saxophone from around 1961. The exhibition also features 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.
Harriet Reed, V&A contemporary performance curator, said the archive reveals “an artist in constant motion – a restless, forward-looking mind at work beyond the music and images we know.”
Exhibition divided into four sections
The tour is structured in four parts. Bowie Through a Lens examines photography's role in shaping Bowie's identity, featuring work by Mick Rock, Terry O'Neill, Masayoshi Sukita, and Brian Ward. All the Somebody People focuses on studio and stage work, including handwritten notes, stage designs, and instruments.
Hooked to the Silver Screen illuminates Bowie's film career, with sketches, treatments, contact sheets, clapperboards, and Polaroids from roles in Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, Labyrinth, The Snowman, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. It also includes a script for a Simpsons episode that Bowie declined to star in.
The final section, I Can't Give Everything Away, explores Bowie's archiving instincts, featuring his first saxophone, 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, and handwritten plans for unrealised projects such as the TV film The Catastrophe Cabinet.
Tour stops linked to Bowie's life and legacy
V&A director Sir Tristram Hunt called the tour a “landmark national partnership for the V&A.” He added: “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.”
Bowie played Dundee on the Ziggy Stardust tour in 1973, the first stop. Blackpool's Showtown is second: in 1966, David Bowie and the Buzz performed on the south pier. The Bowes Museum in County Durham is third, with Bowie having played nearby Sunderland in 1987. The Ferens art gallery in Hull follows, where his Spiders from Mars backing band originated. Bristol, where Bowie performed in 1973, is the current final stop, with more venues to be announced.
Previous Bowie exhibitions and future dates
The V&A first showed Bowie's archive in 2013, touring globally with 12 stops until 2018. In September 2023, the permanent Bowie Centre opened at V&A East Storehouse in London. Music exhibitions have been successful for the V&A, including shows on Annie Lennox, Taylor Swift, Pink Floyd, club culture, Black British music, and grassroots music venues.
Tour dates: V&A Dundee (November 2026 – February 2027), Showroom Blackpool (June – September 2027), Bowes Museum (October 2027 – January 2028), Ferens art gallery Hull (February – May 2028), Bristol museum and art gallery (June – September 2028).
