‘DIVA’ exhibition opens today in Denver: some 250 objects of legendary divas, from Maria Callas to Taylor Swift

The Denver Art Museum in Colorado opens today, October 4, 2026, the exhibition ‘DIVA’, which will remain open to the public until January 31, 2027, as the Denver Art Museum announces. It is the exclusive U.S. presentation of the exhibition created by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which debuted in London in 2023 and then toured internationally, arriving in Denver as the only venue in the United States where it can be seen.

The exhibition gathers nearly 250 objects and 58 costumes belonging to around 100 legendary stage artists, tracing the history of the diva from 19th-century opera to today’s global superstars, as the Denver magazine 303 Magazine writes. ‘Act I’ presents the origins of the diva — the divas of opera, theatre, film and dance, from Maria Callas and Sarah Bernhardt to Josephine Baker and Marilyn Monroe — while ‘Act II’ is devoted to modern divas, from Tina Turner and Cher to Beyoncé, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Prince, Adele, Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin.

Among the most notable objects are Tina Turner’s legendary ‘Flame Dress’, designed by Bob Mackie and worn on stage in 1978, a print of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, as well as Elton John’s wig, according to the newspaper Air Mail. For the Denver edition, the curatorial team added new loans: two Taylor Swift costumes, a tribute to Dolly Parton — with the famous ‘A Coat of Many Colors’ costume and a memorial book that visitors can sign for her family — as well as five Latina artists, from Carmen Miranda to Selena Quintanilla, as Black Tie Colorado reports.

‘Divas represent the ideal of freedom,’ says Jill D’Alessandro, director of the Avenir Institute of Textile Arts and Fashion and the organizing curator of the exhibition in Denver, quoted by 303 Magazine. ‘They live unapologetically and defy cultural norms to be exactly themselves.’ The exhibition is a multisensory experience — with video, audio installations and headphones — and examines how divas have built their identities, commanded audiences and used fashion and performance to influence culture beyond the stage.