Coming to the Bowes - a David Bowie treasure trove
Museum to host iconic exhibition
How to follow a Vivienne Westwood exhibition? The Bowes Museum has surely found the answer with an exhibition of more than 100 items from the David Bowie archive at the V&A (London’s Victoria & Albert Museum).
The County Durham venue is included on the tour itinerary for David Bowie: On Tour, hosting what it has dubbed Bowie at The Bowes from October 2027 until January 2028.
For Bowie fans in the North East and from further afield it promises a remarkably intimate insight into the world of one of pop music’s most fascinating performers and innovators.
The tour, featuring items never previously displayed in public, will open at V&A Dundee in November this year and then proceed to Blackpool before arriving at the Bowes Museum next year.
It will travel thereafter to Hull (February to May 2028) and then Bristol. Further venues are to be announced.
The exhibition will have four sections, giving audiences an insight into Bowie’s creative process and exploring how the musician created his ever-evolving image, music and screen work.
V&A director Sir Tristram Hunt said: “David Bowie: On Tour is a landmark national partnership for the V&A, bringing highlights from David Bowie’s extraordinary archive to audiences across the UK for the first time.
“Working with our colleagues in museums and venues nationwide, we’re opening up Bowie’s story in the places connected to his life and legacy, ensuring people across the country can experience these remarkable objects where they live and be inspired by his enduring creativity.”
There was understandable delight at the Bowes Museum at the forthcoming exhibition.
Vicky Sturrs, director of programmes and collections, said: “We’re excited to bring Bowie at The Bowes as part of the national David Bowie: On Tour.
“Presenting 100 extraordinary highlights from the V&A’s David Bowie archive is a major cultural moment for the North of England, giving audiences unprecedented access to one of the world’s most iconic creative legacies and revealing the remarkable imagination behind Bowie’s enduring influence.
“Being selected as one of only a handful of venues to present this exhibition is a significant achievement and a real vote of confidence in The Bowes Museum.
“It represents an exciting opportunity to welcome new audiences, strengthen our national profile and bring a major cultural moment to County Durham and the North of England.”
The exhibition’s opening section, Bowie Through a Lens, will show how photography helped to shape Bowie’s image and identity.
It will feature work by celebrated photographers Terry O’Neill, Mick Rock, Sukita, Brian Ward and others.
The second section, All the Somebody People, will focus on Bowie on stage and in the studio across four defining eras, revealing how he reinvented his sound and personas.
The first will recall Ziggy Stardust, showing how Bowie crafted his iconic persona with a display featuring Freddie Burretti and Kansai Yamamoto costumes, Bowie’s handwritten notes and cut-ups plotting the album.
Visitors will also see sketches dating from the famous tour and an acoustic guitar from the era which will be on display for the first time.
The second will focus on Bowie’s Berlin years, highlighting his pioneering use of recording techniques and equipment in the studio with Tony Visconti and Brian Eno for the albums Low (1977), Heroes (1977) and Lodger (1979).
Personal items on display will include Bowie’s keys to his Berlin apartment, unseen sketches and concept art for the cover of Low.
Also on show will be handwritten lyrics for the Lodger track from Look Back in Anger and the Japanese koto (musical instrument) used by Bowie on Moss Garden from Heroes.
The third sub-section, Let’s Dance, will reveal how Bowie created the blueprint for his major stadium tours, with a series of unseen lyrics and a set design for the Serious Moonlight tour on show for the first time alongside photography of studio recording sessions and the album’s cover shoot.
Finally, ★ (Blackstar) will explore Bowie’s use of symbolism in recalling previous eras through his notable last recording, with items including Bowie’s handwritten lyrics for the song ★ from Blackstar and his hand-painted costume for the Lazarus music video, alongside performance notes and props.
All promise special insight into the creation of Bowie’s 26th and final studio album which was released on January 8, 2016, just two days before his death at the age of 69 shocked fans around the world.
The exhibition’s third section, Hooked to the Silver Screen, will reveal Bowie’s performances on screen, from his boundary-pushing music videos to his iconic film and TV roles and unexpected cameos.
Among highlights will be storyboard sketches and the Natasha Korniloff-designed costume for his Ashes to Ashes music video from 1980 and his collaborations with Flora Sigismondi for the Little Wonder music video (1997).
There will be previously unseen video treatments, scripts and props for the video The Stars are Out Tonight which accompanied the 2013 album, The Next Day.
Also you will see contact sheets from Bowie’s first film set, The Image (1967), the clapperboard used for The Man Who Fell to Earth (1975), unseen prep notes for Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (1983) and his script, character notes and Polaroid shots of costume fittings for his character Jareth in the 1986 fantasy film, Labyrinth.
The exhibition will recall further onscreen moments such as Bowie’s role as narrator for The Snowman (1982) and his star turn as Lord Royal Highness in the 2006 SpongeBob SquarePants movie.
Visitors can also see the script for one he politely turned down - an episode of The Simpsons.
The final section, I Can’t Give Everything Away, will explore Bowie’s interest in time, documenting his process and legacy.
It will feature items and personal possessions that Bowie chose to keep in his archive, including musical instruments and equipment.
The Grafton Alto saxophone bought for him by his father in 1961 will be on display along with the harmonica microphone he used on his final A Reality Tour of 2003-04.
In this Bowie treasure trove you will also see the stopwatch he used when songwriting, his 1988 British passport and his advance copy of The Velvet Underground’s 1967 record, I’m Waiting for the Man.
This most eclectic section will also feature a handwritten ‘to do’ list recording the workshops, interviews and museum visits Bowie had planned, charts revealing the projects he wanted to achieve and those that went unrealised.
Include among the latter his handwritten synopsis for a proposed TV film called The Catastrophy Cabinet, dating from the mid-1970s.
All in all, it promises a Bowie fan’s dream in a museum resembling a French chateau in the County Durham countryside.
The David Bowie archive was acquired by the V&A in 2024 through the generosity of the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group.
It comprises more than 90,000 items spanning Bowie’s career, including the items listed above and many more.
For details of current and forthcoming attractions, go to The Bowes Museum website.