More than a decade after his death, David Bowie continues to challenge the notion that an artist’s work belongs solely to the past. This autumn, the Victoria and Albert Museum will launch David Bowie: On Tour, an ambitious travelling exhibition that brings more than 100 objects from the musician’s extraordinary archive to audiences across the United Kingdom. Rather than remaining confined to London, Bowie’s creative universe will embark on its own journey, an appropriately restless tribute to one of the twentieth century’s greatest artistic shapeshifters.

Beginning at V&A Dundee in November before travelling to Blackpool, County Durham, Hull, Bristol and additional venues yet to be announced, the exhibition marks the first time highlights from Bowie’s personal archive have toured nationally. Drawn from the vast collection of more than 90,000 objects acquired by the V&A, the selection offers an intimate portrait of an artist whose imagination transcended music to embrace fashion, theatre, film, design and performance.

Among the artefacts are iconic stage costumes, musical instruments, handwritten lyrics, notebooks, sketches, photographs and personal memorabilia. Visitors will encounter Bowie’s first saxophone, elaborate Ziggy Stardust costumes, behind-the-scenes Polaroids from costume fittings, and rarely seen documents revealing the meticulous thinking behind his ever-changing characters. Far from being nostalgic relics, these objects chart an artist in constant motion, documenting a career built on reinvention rather than repetition.

For Bowie, identity was never fixed. Each character, from Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane to the Thin White Duke, was conceived as a multidisciplinary work of art where music, costume, make-up, photography and stagecraft merged into a single creative language. His archive reveals that these transformations were neither spontaneous nor superficial, but the result of rigorous experimentation and an insatiable curiosity about culture, technology and visual expression.

The decision to send the archive on a national tour feels particularly fitting. Bowie himself resisted permanence throughout his career, constantly moving between cities and disciplines. It also reflects a broader shift in how institutions engage audiences, bringing cultural heritage beyond major metropolitan centres and making landmark collections accessible to communities across the country.

While the David Bowie Centre at the V&A East Storehouse in London offers researchers and visitors ongoing access to the complete archive, David Bowie: On Tour distils that immense collection into a compelling narrative about creativity itself.

Few musicians have influenced contemporary culture as profoundly across so many disciplines. His collaborations with fashion designers, filmmakers, photographers and visual artists continue to inspire generations of creatives working today.

David Bowie: On Tour opens at V&A Dundee on 4 November 2026 before travelling to venues across the UK through 2029.