In Liverpool there is the Beatles tour, Elvis Presley ha Graceland and now too David Bowie will have its home, a pilgrimage destination for fans from around the world. It will be inaugurated in Londonthe city where the artist was born, on 13 September 2025. It will be called David Bowie Center and will be located in a new space of Victoria and Albert Museumthe museum that in 2013 hosted the exhibition on the White Duke ‘David is’ which then toured the world attracting millions of visitors.
The design museum will permanently display Bowie’s archive
The museum dedicated to design and at applied artsamong the most important and visited in the world in the sector, will permanently exhibit the enormous archive of the immortal rock star who passed away on 10 January 2016. The exhibition will be under the banner of ‘Sound and Vision’ – to paraphrase one of the pieces of Bowie – that is, it will propose the musical world and objects of the author of Changes seen up close.
An archive with over 90 thousand items to tell the story of Bowie’s creative process
I’m beyond that 90 thousand the elements chosen to retrace the creative process by Bowie, cultural icon and supporter of reinventionand will be divided into three areas. There are objects, photo, personal letters, musical instruments and lyrics of famous songs such as Heroes And Hunger written by hand, some also with the ‘cut up’ method that the artist had learned from the writer William Burroughs.
Bowie’s iconic costumes, from the glam of Ziggy Stardust to the White Duke
Among the most spectacular pieces are the costumes who told, together with the music, Bowie’s transformations: from glam by Ziggy Stardust al lunar clown from Ashes to Ashesfrom the tailored suit of White Duke to the overcoat with the English flag of Alexander McQueen worn in the nineties.
The vision of the Victoria and Albert Museum
«David Bowie he was one of the greatest musicians and performers of all time. The V&A is thrilled to become the custodian of his incredible archive and to be able to open it to the public” – he said Tristram Huntdirector of the London museum. – «Bowie’s radical innovations through the musicThe theaterThe cinemathe fashion continue to influence design and visual culture and inspire creatives from Lady Gaga to Tilda Swinton And Raf Simons.»
Involvement of young people in the creation of exhibitions
To develop the exhibitions of David Bowie Centerthe curators consulted with young people aged between 18 and 25 from the four districts of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets And Waltham Forest. Plus, a host of guests – including Bowie collaborators, experts, contemporary creatives and kids from the V&A East youth collective – will be invited to share their insights and perspectives on the archive.
The creation of the David Bowie Center
The acquisition and creation of David Bowie Center was made possible thanks to David Bowie Summer with the support of Warner Music Group and a donation from Blavatnik Family Foundationthe foundation created by the Ukrainian entrepreneur Leonid Blavatnik.
A unique experience in the V&A East Storehouse
The David Bowie Center will be placed in V&A East Storehousea new space in the London museum which will open next March East London. In addition to Bowie’s permanent archive, it will be “an experience” that will contain more 250 thousand objects, 350 thousand books And a thousand archivesbut also restoration laboratories And conservationwork areas, research and reading rooms, along with galleries and exhibition and performance spaces.