Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 

With so much at stake on the Supreme Court, come explore the American judicial system through one of its sharpest legal minds. Coinciding with the twenty-fifth anniversary of her appointment to the high court, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the first-ever retrospective about the famed associate justice and American cultural icon.

Based upon the New York Times bestselling book of the same name, it was created in partnership with the book’s co-authors: journalist Irin Carmon, a senior correspondent at New York magazine, and attorney Shana Knizhnik, who founded the popular Tumblr that earned Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Internet fame (and amused the Justice herself). Like the book, the exhibition offers a visually rich, entertaining, yet rigorous look at RBG’s life and work. Through archival photographs and documents, contemporary art, media stations, and playful interactives, the exhibition tells the parallel stories of RBG’s remarkable career and the efforts she joined to expand “We the People” to include those long left out of the Constitution’s promises. By bringing to life RBG’s compelling biography and her commitment to our nation’s highest ideals, the exhibition invites visitors to participate in civic life and consider how the future of the Supreme Court impacts us all.

Woven throughout the exhibition are briefs and other writings by RBG, including some of her most famously searing dissents. In keeping with the spirit of Carmon and Knizhnik’s book, the exhibition riffs off the playful connection between the Notorious RBG and Notorious B.I.G. (as she likes to point out, they were both born and bred in Brooklyn, New York): for example, the name of each gallery section alludes to a song or lyric from the late hip-hop artist.