Image: Jacket worn by Bowie as Aladdin Sane. Designed by Freddie Burretti for David Bowie, 1973. Image courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
New working archive at V&A East Storehouse will house 90,000+ Bowie items with public access model through the V&A’s Order an Object service
The V&A has announced that its David Bowie Centre will open on 13 September 2025 at V&A East Storehouse.
The new area will feature guest-curated displays by musician and producer Nile Rodgers and rock band The Last Dinner Party. The Centre will function as both a working store and permanent home for David Bowie’s archive whilst offering free public access.
Visitors can also book one-on-one time with their own selections from the 90,000+ items in his archive.
The David Bowie archive was acquired by the V&A through the of the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group. It joins over 1,000 archives from creative luminaries including Vivien Leigh, the House of Worth, and The Glastonbury Festival Archive.
V&A secures Bowie’s 80,000-item archive, plans 2025 exhibition
Nile Rodgers, who produced Bowie’s single and 1983 album, Let’s Dance, has curated items from the collection for display including a bespoke Peter Hall suit, personal correspondence between Bowie and Rodgers about the 1993 Black Tie White Noise album.
Rodgers said: “My creative life with David Bowie provided the greatest success of his incredible career, but our friendship was just as rewarding. Our bond was built on a love of the music that had both made and saved our lives.”
The V&A East curatorial team consulted with 18-25-year-olds from the four Olympic Boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest through London Legacy Development Corporation and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s Elevate Youth Voice programme. This consultation informed nine rotating displays that reveal aspects of Bowie’s creative capacity, including unrealised projects such as an adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 and planned Young Americans and Diamond Dogs films.
The Centre introduces a public access model through the V&A’s Order an Object service, allowing visitors to book one-on-one appointments to examine up to five three-dimensional items from the archive. Bookings require at least two weeks’ notice, with Bowie items becoming available for advance booking from September. Paper-based materials can be consulted through advance appointments with the Archives team.
Madeleine Haddon, curator at V&A East said: “In the Centre, we want you to get closer to Bowie, and his creative process than ever before. For Bowie fans and those coming to him for the first time, we hope the Centre can inspire the next generation of creatives.”
