Barbie exhibition to open in Scotland for the first time

An exhibition charting the evolution of Barbie is set to open in Scotland for the first time.

Barbie: The Exhibition explores the history of the doll from 1959 to the present day and features items including clothes, vehicles and playsets.

The show with more than 150 dolls will run at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow from Friday until 18 October.

A rare, hand-painted first edition Barbie is among the objects on display, alongside the first black, Hispanic and Asian versions of the popular doll, which inspired a blockbuster film with Margot Robbie in 2024.

Rare Barbie Dreamhouses and accessories will also be on show, as will the first Barbie with Down's Syndrome and the first in a wheelchair.

The Design Museum exhibition - which was previously on display in London - includes sections devoted to Ken and how the Barbie brand has had an impact on fashion, film, creativity and popular culture.

Danielle Thom, senior curator at the Design Museum, said it will be a "riot of colour" and offer a " a hit of nostalgia" for attendees.

She said: "It's now 67 years since the doll was first introduced in 1959 and the story we're telling here is fundamentally a design story.

"But Barbie has, of course, had an outsized cultural impact and cultural presence and so inevitably Barbie has had an impact on design as well as being shaped by it."

Jane Rowlands, head of museums and collections at Glasgow Life, which runs the museum, said the exhibition will appeal to a range of people.

She said: "There are people who will remember playing with the doll and inventing their own world of Barbie when they were children, but also we've got a newer audience given the recent film a couple of years ago."

Bailie Annette Christie, chairwoman of Glasgow Life, said the exhibition will be "one of the standout cultural experiences of the summer" in Scotland.