MAD Presents Bejeweled Career-Spanning Look at ‘Taylor Swift: Storyteller’

If you’re planning a getaway to New York City this summer and are proud to call yourself a “Swiftie,” consider stopping in at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), where an exhibition called “Taylor Swift: Storyteller” explores the artistic reinventions of the 12-time Grammy Award-winner told via her exquisitely crafted costumes, inventive scene design, imaginative iconography and blingy accessories.

Exhibition highlights include her sparkling ensemble from “Bejeweled” (2022), the cheerleader and ballerina costumes from “Shake It Off” (2014) and the red wedding dress and bellhop uniform from “I Bet You Think About Me (2021).

“Taylor Swift: Storyteller” includes concert attire by couture fashion houses, along with jewelry, props, ephemera and projections of music videos. Visitors will marvel at the artist’s famous crystal-encrusted guitar, as well as the lyrics penned in Swift’s handwriting embellishing key walls in the space.

“At MAD, fashion and the decorative have long been valued as a critical visual language and no one speaks that language quite like Taylor Swift,” said Alexandra Schwartz, the Museum’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Craft, and Design. “Whether dressed down in a flannel shirt and untamed hair or literally dazzling her audiences in head-to-toe Swarovski crystals, Taylor gives greater meaning to the palettes, textures and depths of feeling expressed in her songwriting.”

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of public programs and fun events inspired by the creativity and passion of Swift’s ardent fan base — from video and film screenings to karaoke sing-alongs. The exhibition runs through September 4, 2023, and tickets cost $25.

Credits: “Bejeweled” video still: courtesy of TAS Rights Management. Jewelry photo by Bruce M. White; courtesy the Museum of Arts and Design.