New David Bowie Centre to open in the V&A including The Last Dinner Party and Nile Rodgers curations
London’s V&A has announced that the David Bowie archive has found a permanent home, as it unveils the David Bowie Centre opening at V&A East Storehouse.
The David Bowie Centre will feature an exclusive guest-curated display and “unreleased projects and newly uncovered revelations.” Visitors to the David Bowie Centre can also book one-on-one time with personal selections from the 90,000+ items in his archive.
Nile Rodgers, who produced Bowie’s hugely successful single and 1983 album Let’s Dance, has curated items reflecting what he calls his and Bowie’s shared “love of the music that had both made and saved our lives.” Selections made by Rodgers include a bespoke Peter Hall suit worn by Bowie during the Serious Moonlight tour, and Chuck Pulin photographs from the Let’s Dance recording sessions.
Brit Award-winning indie rock band, The Last Dinner Party, have selected objects mostly from the 1970s that illustrate how Bowie inspires generations of artists to “stand up for themselves and their music” and “steal and reinterpret” to create something unique. Selections include writings and set lists, and Mick Rock photos depicting intimate recording moments.
The Last Dinner Party elaborated on their love of Bowie, stating, “David Bowie continues to inspire generations of artists like us to stand up for ourselves. Bowie is a constant source of inspiration to us. When we first started developing ideas for TLDP, we took a similar approach to Bowie developing his Station to Station album – we had a notebook and would write words we wanted to associate with the band.”
The collection was made possible through donations from the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group. It adds to over 1,000 archives from the likes of Vivien Leigh, the House of Worth, and The Glastonbury Festival Archive.
The David Bowie Centre will open on September 13th.
