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Kylie, the exhibition, curated and designed by the Victorian Arts Centre, officially opened in London this week at the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum.

Drawing from over 600 items generously donated by Kylie Minogue to the Arts Centre’s Performing Arts Collection.

The exhibition which attracted more than 500,000 visitors to its Australian tour, celebrates Kylie’s contribution to music, stage and screen. It features an extensive display of costumes, accessories, photographs and audio-visual material, including new items added since last year’s Showgirl tour of Australia.

The UK tour kicks off the V&A and runs until 10 June. It then travels to Manchester Art Gallery (30 June to 2 September 2007) and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow (21 September 2007 – 13 January 2008).

Hundreds of fans waited patiently alongside film crews and photographers outside the museum in the cold for a glimpse of the diminutive star.

Speaking after she saw the London exhibition, the singer said: 'I was actually speechless. It was a very strange feeling. I was so honoured and overwhelmed.' She joked that it was 'a long way from Ramsey Street', where her career began on the TV soap Neighbours.

’This has been the most amazing experience for me. I'm so honoured that the Arts Centre wants to preserve this material in the Performing Arts Collection. Wherever it goes, I hope visitors have a great time exploring the exhibition, finding the familiar and discovering the new. I know that when the items come home after the tour, they will be taken care of in Melbourne, and it makes me feel very proud.’

Exhibition curator, the Arts Centre’s Janine Barrand said: “This is the biggest exhibition project the Arts Centre has ever mounted and we hope that the overseas visitors have as great a time exploring it as the Australian crowds. Kylie has always been an amazing performer the exhibition aims to capture some of that vitality and creativity.”

Kylie, opened at the Arts Centre on 15 January 2005 and ran until 25 April before touring Australia to the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra (May – August 2005), the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane (September – November 2005) and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney (January – May 2006).

Some highlights of the exhibition include:
• The white muslin dress by Jenny Bannister for the I Should Be So Lucky video (1987)
• The pink showgirl outfit from the Intimate and Live tour (1998)
• The famous “50p” gold hot pants worn by Kylie in the Spinning Around video (2000)
• And costumes by John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld for Kylie’s 2005 Showgirl tour.

The Arts Centre’s Performing Arts Collection was established in 1975, and the is regarded as the most significant specialist collection of performing arts memorabilia in Australia. Several important donations were received in the early years, forming the foundation of the collection. These included the Dame Nellie Melba Collection in 1978 and the Barry Humphries – Dame Edna Everage Collection in 1981.

The Collection now comprises more than 300,000 items from costumes, set models, props, puppets, posters, archives and more, representing the full breadth of the performing arts with objects relating to circus, dance, music, opera and theatre in Australia. As a sign of the significance of the Collection, it was formally recognised as a State collection in 2000.

For more information visit www.theartscentre.net.au/kylie for more information about the Kylie collection.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/