David Bowie's Archive Comes Home to Scotland: Inside the V&A Dundee Exhibition 10 Years After His Death

DUNDEE, Scotland — More than half a century after David Bowie brought Ziggy Stardust to Dundee's Caird Hall, the city has become the first place in Britain to host a landmark national tour of treasures from the singer's personal archive, as David Bowie: On Tour opened at V&A Dundee on Wednesday 4 November 2026. The exhibition runs until Monday 15 February 2027 and brings together around 100 highlights from the V&A's David Bowie archive, many of them never shown in public before, as global celebrations build towards what would have been Bowie's 80th birthday.

For Dundee, the opening carries a particular resonance. On 17 May 1973, Bowie played to a sold-out audience of 2,500 fans at the Caird Hall, wearing a red Kansai Yamamoto jumpsuit and performing songs including "Changes", "The Jean Genie" and "Life on Mars?" Tonight, Friday 6 November 2026, the museum keeps its doors open late for "After Hours: We Can Be Heroes", an evening of live music and DJ sets celebrating the exhibition.

What Happened

David Bowie: On Tour opened to the public at V&A Dundee on Wednesday 4 November 2026, filling Gallery 2 on Level 2 of the waterfront museum. According to the V&A, the archive holds more than 90,000 objects documenting Bowie's life and career, and the Dundee show marks the first time highlights from it have been shared on this scale outside London.

The exhibition is curated by Harriet Reed, Curator of Contemporary Performance at the V&A, and has been developed by V&A Touring and V&A National Programmes with partner venues across the UK. Leonie Bell, Director of V&A Dundee, has described the show as a chance for visitors to encounter personal and intimate objects that reveal how Bowie thought, worked and continually reinvented himself. The museum, at 1 Riverside Esplanade, is open seven days a week from 10am to 5pm, and general admission is free. Tickets for the Bowie exhibition cost £10 for adults, with an optional £1 donation; V&A members and visitors aged 18 and under go free, concessions are available, and advance booking is essential.

Illustration: A stylised museum gallery at V&A Dundee, with Ziggy Stardust-era stage costumes in glass display cases, a vintage acoustic guitar mounted on the wall, and a red lightning-bolt motif overhead.

Among the objects on display are a Ziggy Stardust-era acoustic guitar being shown in public for the first time, the keys to Bowie's Berlin apartment at Hauptstrasse 155, handwritten lyrics and notebooks connected to his final albums, The Next Day and Blackstar, and his posthumous Grammy award. Visitors can also see the Grafton Alto saxophone bought for Bowie by his father in 1961, his first instrument, and the harmonica microphone he used on his last live tour, A Reality Tour, in 2003 and 2004.

The show is organised in four sections. "Bowie Through a Lens" explores how photography shaped Bowie's image and identity, with work by Terry O'Neill, Mick Rock, Sukita and Brian Ward. "All The Somebody People" follows Bowie on stage and in the studio across four defining eras: Ziggy Stardust, the Berlin years, Let's Dance and Blackstar. "Hooked to the Silver Screen" is devoted to his work on screen, from music videos to film and television roles. The final section, "I Can't Give Everything Away", takes its title from the closing track of Blackstar and gathers personal possessions Bowie chose to keep, including fan art, a stopwatch he used while songwriting, his 1988 British passport and an advance copy of The Velvet Underground's 1967 record "I'm Waiting for the Man".

Some of the most personal material comes from Bowie's final years: handwritten lyrics for the song "Blackstar", a hand-painted costume for the "Lazarus" music video, and performance notes and props that, according to the V&A, offer previously unseen insight into the making of his last album. There are also unseen lyrics and a set design for the Serious Moonlight tour, sketches for the cover of Low, and the koto, a Japanese musical instrument, that Bowie used on "Moss Garden" from "Heroes". Film fans will find storyboard sketches and the costume for the "Ashes to Ashes" video of 1980, the clapperboard from The Man Who Fell to Earth (1975), and Bowie's script, character notes and costume-fitting Polaroids for his role as Jareth in the 1986 film Labyrinth.

Background

Bowie's connection with Dundee runs deeper than a single concert. According to the V&A, he gave his first Dundee performance in 1966, seven years before the Ziggy Stardust tour reached the Caird Hall. The 1973 concert has lived on in local memory: fans kept tickets and Polaroid photographs from the night, and some of that memorabilia now appears in the exhibition. A bronze ring worn by Bowie in the photo shoot for the cover of Hunky Dory is also on display.

The archive at the heart of the show is held by the V&A at the David Bowie Centre, V&A East Storehouse in Hackney Wick, London, the permanent home of the collection, where visitors can request to see individual objects through a free Order an Object service. The touring exhibition is the first chance for audiences outside the capital to see such a wide selection of the material up close.

Illustration: A stylised 1970s concert crowd with raised arms facing a glowing stage beneath a giant red-and-blue lightning bolt, evoking David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust stage persona.

Bowie, born David Robert Jones in Brixton, London, on 8 January 1947, died in New York on 10 January 2016, aged 69, two days after the release of Blackstar on his 69th birthday. He had been ill with liver cancer for 18 months, a diagnosis known only to a small circle around him. The timing turned his final album, with its songs of mortality and farewell, into an event that reshaped how the record was heard around the world.

The Dundee opening also forms part of Bowie80, the global programme marking what would have been Bowie's 80th birthday on 8 January 2027. Launched by Bowie's estate on 5 October 2026, Bowie80 runs throughout 2027 with events, releases and fan experiences around the world. The V&A tour is one of the programme's centrepieces, taking objects from the 90,000-piece archive to audiences across the UK over the next two years. Bowie would have turned 80 in the same month that Low, the first album of his Berlin period, turns 50, and the exhibition looks both ways at once: back to Ziggy Stardust and the Berlin albums Low (1977), "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979), recorded with Tony Visconti and Brian Eno, and forward to the final recordings, where handwritten notes show an artist still planning, sketching and revising to the end. Among the more unexpected items are a handwritten synopsis for a proposed television film called The Catastrophy Cabinet, dating to around 1974 and 1975, and handwritten to-do lists of workshops, interviews and museum visits Bowie had planned.

Why It Matters

Archive exhibitions of this kind matter because they show the working, not just the finished product. The finished Bowie is familiar: the records, the videos, the famous photographs. The archive shows the drafts, the false starts and the decisions behind them, from cut-up lyric sheets plotting the Ziggy Stardust album to sketches for a tour and unseen treatments for videos. For younger visitors who know Bowie only as a historical figure, the notebooks and to-do lists make a distant star feel like a working artist.

Illustration: A stylised songwriter's desk covered with open notebooks of handwritten lyrics, loose sheets of paper, a pencil, round glasses, a glowing lamp and a black vinyl record.

The show also matters for what it says about where British culture is kept and who gets to see it. Large national collections are concentrated in London, and touring exhibitions are one of the few ways audiences elsewhere can encounter original objects rather than reproductions. The V&A describes it as a national partnership bringing highlights of the archive to audiences across the UK for the first time, in the places connected to Bowie's life and legacy. Dundee, with its documented Bowie history, is a deliberate first choice rather than a convenient one.

Finally, the exhibition arrives at a moment when Bowie's legacy is being actively reassessed. Ten years after his death, and with his 80th birthday approaching, the Bowie80 programme is reintroducing his work to audiences who were children, or not yet born, when he died. An exhibition that pairs the glamour of the stage costumes with the intimacy of handwritten lyrics shows both the icon and the person who made him.

What Happens Next

Tonight, Friday 6 November 2026, V&A Dundee hosts "After Hours: We Can Be Heroes" from 7.30pm to 11pm, a late-night takeover celebrating the Bowie and Catwalk exhibitions. According to the V&A, the evening features a DJ set from Lizzie and Aurora of The Last Dinner Party, live performances from Lucia & The Best Boys and GAÏA, pop-up bars, a photobooth, face painting and an editorial make-up artist. Tickets cost £35, or £25 for concessions, and the event is for visitors aged 18 and over, with flashing lights in use. Access to the Bowie exhibition during the evening cannot be guaranteed because of limited capacity in the gallery, so visitors hoping to see the show itself are advised to book a separate daytime visit.

David Bowie: On Tour remains at V&A Dundee until Monday 15 February 2027, closed on 25 and 26 December and on 1 January. After Dundee, the tour continues to Showtown Blackpool (June to September 2027), the Bowes Museum in County Durham (October 2027 to January 2028), the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull (February to May 2028), and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (June to September 2028), with further venues expected to be announced.

Visitors planning a trip should book in advance through the V&A Dundee website. Adult tickets are £10 with an optional £1 donation, V&A members and under-18s go free, and concessions apply. The museum advises booking early, particularly for weekends and school holidays. Those who cannot travel to Dundee can visit the David Bowie Centre at V&A East Storehouse in London, the archive's permanent home, or follow the tour around the UK through 2027 and 2028.

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FAQ

When does David Bowie: On Tour run at V&A Dundee?

The exhibition opened on Wednesday 4 November 2026 and runs until Monday 15 February 2027. It is closed on 25 and 26 December 2026 and on 1 January 2027, and is displayed in Gallery 2, on Level 2 of V&A Dundee.

How much do tickets cost?

Adult tickets cost £10, with an optional £1 donation. V&A Dundee Members, V&A Members and visitors aged 18 and under go free, and concessions are available. Advance booking is essential.

What can visitors see in the exhibition?

Around 100 highlights from the V&A's David Bowie archive, which holds more than 90,000 objects. Highlights include a Ziggy Stardust-era acoustic guitar, the keys to Bowie's Berlin apartment, handwritten lyrics and notebooks from The Next Day and Blackstar, his posthumous Grammy award, costumes, instruments, photography and personal keepsakes, some never shown in public before.

What is After Hours: We Can Be Heroes?

It is a late-night event at V&A Dundee on Friday 6 November 2026, from 7.30pm to 11pm, celebrating the Bowie and Catwalk exhibitions, with a DJ set from Lizzie and Aurora of The Last Dinner Party, live performances from Lucia & The Best Boys and GAÏA, and pop-up bars. Tickets cost £35, or £25 for concessions, and the event is for ages 18 and over. Access to the Bowie exhibition during the event cannot be guaranteed.

Where does the tour go after Dundee?

After Dundee, David Bowie: On Tour travels to Showtown Blackpool (June to September 2027), the Bowes Museum in County Durham (October 2027 to January 2028), the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull (February to May 2028), and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (June to September 2028).

Sources

• V&A — David Bowie: On Tour FAQs: https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/info/david-bowie-on-tour-faqs
• V&A — David Bowie: On Tour to open at V&A Dundee: https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/info/david-bowie-on-tour-to-open-at-v-a-dundee
• V&A — After Hours: We Can Be Heroes: https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/whatson/events/after-hours-we-can-be-heroes
• Dundee Culture — First Look: Over 100 rare David Bowie objects unveiled at V&A Dundee: https://www.dundeeculture.com/post/first-look-over-100-rare-david-bowie-objects-unveiled-at-v-a-dundee-ahead-of-landmark-exhibition
• Music Week — David Bowie's 80th birthday year to be celebrated with global Bowie80 programme: https://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/david-bowie-s-80th-birthday-year-to-be-celebrated-with-global-bowie80-programme/095155
• Wikipedia — Death of David Bowie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_David_Bowie