The David Bowie Archive is scheduled to open to the public in 2025

LONDON – A six-decade archive chronicling the career of pop icon David Bowie will open in London in 2025 and offer a “new sourcebook for the Bowie of tomorrow,” a museum curator said on Wednesday.

Victoria and Albert Museum director Tristram Hunt said the “incredible” collection has more than 80,000 Bowie memorabilia.

They range from handwritten texts and letters to sheet music, original costumes, photographs and album covers.

A range of Bowie instruments will also be on display, along with music videos, set designs and awards.

Bowie, originally from South London, died in 2016 aged 69.

The collection will be housed at the Bowie Center for the Study of Performing Arts, a new outpost of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

The museum is delighted “to be the custodian of its incredible archive and to be able to open it to the public,” Hunt said.

“Bowie’s radical innovations in music, theatre, film, fashion and style – from Berlin to Tokyo to London – continue to influence design and visual culture, inspiring creatives from Janelle Monae to Lady Gaga to Tilda Swinton and Raf Simons,” added he added .

Bowie has enjoyed an exceptional career that has sold around 140 million records and has embraced styles ranging from glam rock to jazz, as well as stage personalities such as Ziggy Stardust.

The new center will be located in the V&A East Storehouse in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, east London.

The museum said this was made possible by a joint donation of £10 million (about US$12 million) from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group.

Bowie’s estate sold the publishing rights to his “entire work” to Warner last year.

The center meant his life’s work now takes its “rightful place alongside many other cultural icons and artistic geniuses,” said a spokesman for the David Bowie Estate.

The behind-the-scenes access to the new event offerings “means David’s work can be shared with the public in ways that were previously not possible.”