An exhibition featuring objects from Taylor Swift’s personal archive will open at the V&A on 27th July. Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail consists of 13 installations on temporary display across the V&A this summer.
The V&A exhibition celebrates the creative process and career of 14-time Grammy Award winning artist, Taylor Swift.
Each theatrical display will include a selection of objects on loan from the artist presented in spectacular galleries at V&A South Kensington, as part of a free trail across the museum. Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail marks the success of Swift’s UK tour and celebrates her creativity through costumes, songwriting and music videos, exploring the global phenomenon of the pop icon. 16 looks will sit alongside instruments played by the performer, music awards, storyboards and previously unseen archival material tracing Swift’s story from childhood to pioneering global artist.
Each of the 13 stops on the trail showcase a chapter in the songbook of Taylor Swift’s career and spotlight a particular era of her music and prolific songwriting. Costume and accessories on loan from Swift’s personal archive are on display, from customised designer cowboy boots worn during her early career as a country singer in 2007, to the jet-black late Victorian inspired ruffled shoulder dress worn in the most recent music video for her multiple-week #1 single Fortnight, from the critically acclaimed album The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Each display presents some of Swift’s most memorable looks in dialogue with its unique setting in the V&A and draws synergies between the chapters of a songbook and V&A objects on display, as well as the architecture of the building.
Kate Bailey, Senior Curator, Theatre & Performance: “We are delighted to be able to display a range of celebrated looks worn by Taylor Swift at the V&A this summer. Each intimate encounter will celebrate a chapter in the artist’s musical journey. Taylor Swift’s songs like objects tell stories, often drawing from art, history and literature. We hope this specially created theatrical trail across the museum will inspire the imagination of curious visitors as they discover more about the performer, her creativity and V&A objects.”
The trail takes visitors on a winding journey through the V&A’s permanent galleries and presents a variety of objects from Taylor Swift’s personal archive in dialogue with spaces and objects in the collection. It also gives visitors the opportunity to dive into the artist’s world, her storytelling and creativity, celebrating up close her ground-breaking impact on the world stage and the phenomenon of the ‘Swiftie’ fandom.
Designed by award-winning theatre designer Tom Piper and architect Alan Farlie (Ryder Architecture) – the 13 installations across the museum are theatrically staged and inspired by a chapter in the songbook bringing to life different creative moments in the performer’s musical career through set dressing, props, music video and sound. The final stop on the trail features Taylor Swift’s songs and videos in a site-specific sound experience created by award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry. The trail lighting design is by Lucy Record.
Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail is at the V&A South Kensington from 27th to 8th September, 2024.
https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/taylor-swift-songbook-trail
