David Bowie's 'rich and powerful' archive to be made public in new location

The collection includes over 80,000 letters, songs, photographs, stage designs, music awards and costumes.

It also features several instruments owned by the musician,

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including the stylophone that he played on his breakout 1969 single Space Oddity.

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The collection will go on display in a newly built East London venue in 2025.

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The David Bowie Center for the Study of the Performing Arts, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park,

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will provide a "sourcebook for the Bowies of tomorrow",

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said Dr Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A. "It's a wonderful gift," said Kate Bailey,

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a senior curator who previously worked on the museum's groundbreaking 2013 David Bowie Is... exhibition.

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"It traces Bowie's entire career. There are priceless items from his early days in the '60s to [2013 album]

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The Next Day and beyond. “I found it fascinating – the personal insight, the handwritten lyrics,

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the dialogue with other creative practitioners about how a song is written or a song is recorded or a video is handled.

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