David Bowie Research Fellow, supported by Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group

Salary £35,561 - £38,000

Location Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, London

This is a Fixed Term Contract, Full Time vacancy that will close in a month at 23:59 GMT.
The Role
The V&A is a family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity. Our mission is to champion design and creativity in all its forms, advance cultural knowledge, and inspire makers, creators and innovators everywhere.

The V&A is home to the David Bowie Archive. Comprising c. 90,000 items spanning the entirety of Bowie's career, the archive is an important portrait of one of the most innovative and influential artists of our time. Rich and varied, it demonstrates Bowie's thought processes, the genesis and development of individual albums, the evolution of his own image, his collaborations with musicians, photographers, fashion designers and other practitioners, and much more.

We are seeking to appoint a David Bowie Research Fellow on a fixed term contract for 20 months. This role offers an exciting opportunity to undertake new research into the David Bowie Archive, and to share that research through publication and/or programming across the V&A family of sites. You will develop an independent research project that focuses on one or more aspect(s) of Bowie's practice, or takes Bowie as a starting point for the exploration of specific issues in wider creative practice. You will be based at V&A East Storehouse, working alongside the Bowie cataloguing team until their work is completed in summer 2026, and the wider Archives team. You will also be embedded within the vibrant research community of the V&A Research Institute across sites.

The V&A
The V&A is the world's leading museum of art and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects, books and archives that span over 5,000 years of human creativity. The museum holds many of the UK's national collections and houses some of the greatest resources for the study of architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design, theatre and performance.

Our Mission Is To Be Recognised As The World's Leading Museum Of Art, Design And Performance, And To Enrich People's Lives By Promoting Research, Knowledge And Enjoyment Of The Designed World To The Widest Possible Audience. We Strive To Make The V&A Matter To More People And In That Context We Work To The Following Six Strategic Objectives

• To create a world class visitor and learning experience across all V&A sites and collections.
• Focus and deepen the relevance of our collections to the UK creative and knowledge economy.
• Expand the V&A's international reach, reputation and impact.
• To operate with financial and organisational initiative and efficiency.
• Showcase the best of digital design and deliver an outstanding digital experience.
• Diversify and increase private and commercial funding sources.

The Benefits
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Benefits
Generous pension scheme

29 days plus bank holidays

Flexible working

Tickets to V&A exhibitions

Subsidised staff canteen

25% discount in V&A shops

Give as you earn scheme

Bicycle loan

Interest-free season ticket

Interest-free rental deposit loan

Free safety checks and small repairs to your bike with Doctor Bike

Wide range of training and professional development opportunities

Employee Assistance Programme

Staff diversity networks

ED&I at The V&A
At The V&A, We Are Committed To Equality, Diversity And Inclusion (EDI) For All And Strive To Go Above And Beyond Public Duty Placed Upon Us By The Equality Act 2010. As Such, We Are Delighted To Share That We Are a Disability Confident Employer Level 2. The V&A Makes The Following Commitments To All Applications

• The Disability Confident Employer scheme offers guaranteed interviews – Interviewing applicants with a disability who successfully evidence the essential criteria on a person specification and consider them on their abilities;
• Providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process.
• Making reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process so disabled job applicants have the best opportunity to demonstrate that they can do the job.
• Supporting employees and adjustments during employment.

Job Descriptions are currently uploaded as PDF's, if for any reason you require the documents in Word Format, please email
with your request.
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