The V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) has announced it will open its long-awaited V&A East Storehouse at London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on May 31, 2025, featuring over 500,000 creative works.
Some of the items on hand will include a Glastonbury Festival Archive, Elton John’s costumes, and the David Bowie Centre, a separate exhibit in the East Storehouse set to open some time in September 2025.
The David Bowie Centre will offer "a series of rotating displays, installations, guest-curated content and the opportunity to book to see anything from The David Bowie Archive."
The centre will demonstrate his “creative processes as a musical innovator, cultural icon, and advocate for self-expression and reinvention,” offering over 90,000 Bowie-related items acquired by the V&A through the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group.
Some of the items on display will be many of Bowie's iconic outfits, musical instruments, make-up charts, personal notes, handwritten lyrics, sketches, designs and photographs by legendary photographer Mick Rock.
Split into three separate zones, the centre will also have :a mix of small curated displays and audio-visual installations, alongside quieter study areas where visitors can explore aspects of the archive on their own."
“From Bowie’s iconic costume to musical instruments, make-up charts, stage models, Oblique Strategies card decks, personal notes, writings, lyrics and music, sketches, designs and more, at V&A East Storehouse, visitors can get closer to David Bowie than ever before,” the V&A writes in a press release. “To develop the inaugural David Bowie Centre displays, the 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.”
More information can be found here.
DAVID BOWIE CENTRE AT V&A EAST STOREHOUSE OPENS SEPTEMBER 2025
— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) October 22, 2024
“Waiting for the gift of sound and vision…”
This has been a long time coming since we first announced back in February of last year. (https://t.co/8nfKIzvr6A)
It gives us much pleasure to share the press release… pic.twitter.com/MKv6W3ys3W