‘They did a beautiful job’: Tim Burton inaugurates his Design Museum exhibition

Director Tim Burton has said the organisers of an exhibition about his life and work “did a beautiful job” after it became the fastest-selling event in the history of London’s Design Museum.

The World Of Tim Burton will open at the Kensington museum on Friday and will showcase some 600 items including Jenna Ortega’s viral Wednesday dress and Michele Pfeiffer’s Catwoman suit from 1992’s Batman Returns.

The exhibition, which will run until April 21 2025, has already sold more than 32,000 tickets ahead of Burton officially inaugurating the display today.

Looking around the museum on Wednesday, the 66-year-old told the PA news agency he felt the exhibition’s curators had done a “beautiful job”.

Burton told PA: “I remember the first time (I saw it), I didn’t really know what they were doing and it was just very shocking because it’s seeing this stuff up that you never meant to be up on a wall or anything like that.

“But they did a beautiful job, it’s like walking through kind of a fun house, which is nice, so I think they did a beautiful job with it.

“They basically went through and picked things that I never even knew I had, I realised I just kind of hoarded things and I never really threw things away.

“So I never knew this stuff existed until the first show, it’s hard for me because it’s kind of like exposing your dirty laundry to everyone to see.

“But they did it in a way that shows a journey and a process that, although I can’t look at things really specifically, it has a good vibe and a good feeling to me.

“The whole layout is beautifully done, the lighting and the sound and the vibe of it.”

The collection has been on a decade-long world tour, which has seen it visit 14 cities in 11 countries since 2014, but this will be its first visit to the UK, with 90 new pieces added for the exhibition’s final outing.

Some of the items on display will include characters such as the Martians from Mars Attacks! (1996), the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Emily from Corpse Bride (2005), along with Burton’s expressionistic sketches and drawings.

The display will be split into different sections focusing on different periods of Burton’s career, with visitors walking around landscapes reminiscent of his filmography to a custom soundscape created by sound designer Tomi Rose.

Visitors will also be able to see a recreation of the studio where Burton works, which aims to give a “rare private glimpse into his creative process”.

The exhibition’s finale will be a new specially created cinema experience, showing a newly commissioned film, which will give voice to some of Burton’s key collaborators and will be shown in a bespoke art-deco space reminiscent of the cinemas Burton would visit as a child growing up in Hollywood.

Due to demand, the exhibition will be open late on Friday and Saturday evenings for the rest of 2024, with Design Museum members able to see it for free without pre-booking.

For non-members, adult tickets begin at £19.69, while admission for children aged between six and 15 starts at £9.85, and children under six can visit for free.

Alongside the exhibition, the Design Museum will also publish a brand-new book called Tim Burton: Designing Worlds.