David Bowie Archive to Go on Tour, Starting in Dundee
David Bowie's personal archive comes to V&A Dundee this November and it's the most intimate look at a British icon you'll ever get.
Handwritten to-do lists, a passport from 1988, Polaroid snapshots and the stopwatch he used while writing songs are just some of the personal items you might find at David Bowie: On Tour, a new exhibition bringing rare pieces from his archive to audiences across the UK.
The V&A has announced a major new touring exhibition celebrating British icon David Bowie. Titled David Bowie: On Tour, it will open at V&A Dundee on 4 November 2026, marking the first time highlights from the museum’s Bowie archive have been shown outside London on this scale.
More than 100 highlights will go on display, many of them never seen by the public before. These include striking stage costumes, musical instruments, photography spanning his career, and personal handwritten material. Among the treasures are Polaroids from make up and costume fittings, an acoustic guitar from the Ziggy Stardust era, unrealised film scripts, and lyrics and costumes from his final albums, The Next Day and Blackstar.
The exhibition is organised into four sections, each looking at a different side of Bowie’s creativity. These cover his ever changing image in photography, his evolving sound and stage personas across four key eras, and his groundbreaking film and video work.
The final section, “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” focuses on the personal objects and notes that reveal how he planned, thought and worked behind the scenes. This is where you’ll find his first instrument, a Grafton Alto saxophone bought for him by his father in 1961, along with the harmonica microphone he used on his last live tour over 20 years ago.
Leonie Bell, Director of V&A Dundee, said Bowie left a lasting mark on the city after performing at Caird Hall in 1973 during the Ziggy Stardust tour. She called the exhibition a “thrilling opportunity” for fans to see rare items from his personal archive.
After Dundee, the show will travel to Blackpool, County Durham, Hull and Bristol through 2028. Tickets for the Dundee leg go on sale in late September, with priority booking for V&A Dundee members.
Tickets and more information at vam.ac.uk
Credits:
Images courtesy of V&A Dundee
Words: Sufiya McNulty @ellasufiya
