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Spice Girls Exhibition Set For Leeds
Locals and visitors to the city will have the opportunity to spice up their lives when a new Spice Girls themed exhibition opens this month.
Leeds City Museum’s highly anticipated ‘Spiceworld: The Exhibition’ will be running from Friday 28th January until Sunday 3rd July. The exhibition aims to celebrate the most successful girl band of all time, the Spice Girls. The exhibition will also be exploring what it takes to be a modern celebrity.
Yorkshire-based collector Liz West is providing the basis for the exhibition with her extraordinary collection. She is believed to be the foremost collector of official Spice Girls memorabilia and merchandise in the country with almost 4,000 items of all kinds devoted to the band.
Leeds City Museum curator of exhibitions Helen Langwick said: “The Spiceworld exhibition will be a really fun way to start the new year and we are excited about it coming to Leeds City Museum. Whether you are a Spice Girls fan or not this free exhibition is sure to trigger lots of memories from their heyday when you couldn’t move for seeing and hearing them seemingly everywhere.”
The exhibition at the museum on Millennium Square will be the first time that Liz West’s collection has ever been available for the public to view in its entirety. Her fixation with the world famous girl band has seen her collect a huge range of Spice Girls items including outfits worn by the band, accessories, platinum discs, books, magazines and dolls sourced from all over the world, over the course of some 14 years.
Among the collectables on show will be the iconic Union Jack boots worn by Ginger Spice Geri Halliwell in the group’s first-ever live concert in Istanbul; Baby Spice Emma Bunton’s blue sequin dress from the band’s memorable performance at the 1997 Brit Awards (where Geri made her show-stealing appearance in the Union Jack dress), and Leeds’ own Scary Spice Mel B’s trademark giraffe print catsuit complete with ‘Mel B’ crystal-studded belt. Other impressive items include the director’s script for Spiceworld: The Movie and the multi-platinum CD the band were awarded after selling over four million copies of the album Spice in America in 1997.
Liz West said: “I am very excited about the Spice Girls exhibition taking place at Leeds City Museum. I was always extremely keen for this museum to play host to my collection, mainly because of the impressive nature of the venue but also because Leeds is Mel B’s hometown.
“I am looking forward to seeing the public’s reaction to the exhibition. It will be a great experience for all the family - there will be something to appeal to everyone.”
The Spice Girls revelled in worldwide success after their debut single ‘Wannabe’ topped the charts in 31 countries in 1996. They sold over 80 million records worldwide, achieved nine UK number one singles and starred in their own feature film as they spread their own brand of ‘girl power’.
Spiceworld: The Exhibition, 28 January - 3 July. Free admission.
Leeds City Museum, Millennium Square, LS2 8BH, 0113 224 3732, www.leeds.gov.uk/citymuseum
Posted on Friday 14th January 2011
Gemma Feltham
Leeds City Museum
Millennium Square, Leeds, LS2 8BH
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