A major archive arrives in Dundee
Visitors to V&A Dundee will be able to explore David Bowie’s career through more than 100 objects from the singer and songwriter’s extensive archive when a new touring exhibition opens on 4 November 2026. David Bowie: On Tour will remain in the city until 15 February 2027, offering audiences in Scotland access to material spanning the artist’s work on stage and beyond.
The exhibition is the first occasion on which highlights from Bowie’s reported 90,000-item collection have been presented on this scale outside London. Its arrival places Dundee at the opening point of a national tour, before the exhibition moves on to venues elsewhere in the UK. For local audiences, the show provides an opportunity to see material associated with one of the most influential and visually distinctive figures in modern popular culture without leaving Scotland.
From Ziggy Stardust to Blackstar
Among the exhibits is a guitar used during Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust period, a phase closely associated with the performer’s theatrical approach to music and identity. The display also includes keys to his Berlin flat and handwritten lyrics connected with Blackstar, his final studio album. Together, the objects span different periods of his life and work, linking performance, private spaces and the process of writing.
Costumes form another part of the presentation, alongside instruments and material connected with Bowie’s wider creative interests. The collection also includes an image from the film Labyrinth. Other items described for the Dundee show include fan art, Bowie’s first instrument, handwritten notes, sketches and plans for projects that were never completed. Some of the objects have not previously been shown publicly.
| Exhibition detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Venue | V&A Dundee |
| Opening date | 4 November 2026 |
| Closing date | 15 February 2027 |
| Items displayed | More than 100 |
| Archive represented | About 90,000 items |
Ideas behind the performances
The curatorial approach is intended to look beyond familiar photographs and costumes to examine how Bowie developed his ideas. His work drew on music, theatre, dance, film, fashion, photography and art over a career lasting five decades. The Dundee presentation therefore sets his best-known public image alongside objects that point to experimentation, preparation and work that did not reach completion.
Harriet Reed, the V&A’s curator of Contemporary Performance, said the exhibition presents Bowie as an artist whose interests extended beyond the music and images most commonly associated with him.
“David Bowie: On Tour reveals an artist in constant motion – a restless, forward-looking mind at work beyond the music and images we know.”
She said the material would give visitors closer access to the thinking behind his work, including objects shown publicly for the first time. The exhibition’s Dundee run also gives the city a prominent role in the tour’s Scottish presentation, with the V&A providing the setting for a collection that brings together performance artefacts, personal material and evidence of the creative process.
A winter cultural focus for the city
The dates mean the exhibition will be available throughout the winter period and into early 2027. Its contents offer several entry points for visitors: fans can follow Bowie’s musical and visual development, while those interested in design, fashion, film or contemporary performance can examine the range of influences represented in the archive. The display’s emphasis on unfinished ideas and early work also presents a more rounded account than a collection focused only on famous stage appearances.
David Bowie: On Tour opens at V&A Dundee on 4 November 2026 and continues until 15 February 2027. It will subsequently travel to other UK venues, but Dundee is the first stop in Scotland and the first location outside London to present highlights from the archive at this scale.
