Press Release
Current Exhibition
Notorious RBG book cover illustration by Adam Johnson. Courtesy of HarperCollins. Photographs: Crown © by Hurst Photo/Shutterstock
Extended by popular demand through Sunday, December 3
Based upon the New York Times bestselling book of the same name, this unique exhibition was created by the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 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 RBG internet fame (and amused the Justice herself), working together with Skirball curator Cate Thurston. Like the book, the exhibition offers a visually rich, entertaining, yet rigorous look at Justice Ginsburg’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.
Briefs and other writings by RBG, including some of her famously searing dissents, are woven throughout the exhibit. In keeping with the spirit of Carmon and Knizhnik’s book, the exhibition riffs off the playful connection between Notorious RBG and rapper Notorious B.I.G. (as she likes to point out, they were both born and bred in Brooklyn, New York.) The name of each gallery section alludes to a song or lyric from the late hip-hop artist.
For its Washington, DC stop, the Capital Jewish Museum has added artifacts that connect to RBG’s Jewish life in the capital, including a special collar commissioned for her by Moment Magazine, the mezuzah from the door to her Supreme Court chambers, and artifacts collected from public memorials following her death in 2020.
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the first-ever museum exhibition focused solely on this judicial icon, whose image graces mugs, t-shirts, posters, and bobbleheads. The exhibit is a vibrant exploration of Justice Ginsburg’s life and her numerous, often simultaneous roles as a student, wife, mother, lawyer, judge, women’s rights pioneer, and Internet phenomenon.
The exhibition is organized and circulated by the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.
Cooley; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP; Stuart S. Kurlander/Latham & Watkins LLP; Levy Firestone Muse LLP; and Wiley Rein LLP.
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC; Deloitte; Georgetown Law School; Hogan Lovells US LLP; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; and Weiner Brodsky Kider PC.
Notorious RBG book cover illustration by Adam Johnson. Courtesy of HarperCollins. Photographs: Crown © by Hurst Photo/Shutterstock
Public Program
Sunday, June 25, 2023 11am–3 pm
Roxana Alger Geffen, Dissent Collar #11 (eyepatch). Archival inkjet print on Hahnemuhle paper, framed, 16” x 20”, 2017, Edition of 5. Copyright of the artist.
Public Program
Wednesday, July 12, 2023 5:30pm–8 pm
Photo Credit:: Photograph of the memorial created outside the Supreme Court following the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, September 2020. Photograph by Lloyd Wolf, gift of the photographer, Capital Jewish Museum Collection.
Public Program
Tuesday, October 3, 2023 6:30pm
Color photograph of B'nai Brith Women (now Jewish Women International) at an abortion rights/pro-choice rally on November 12th, 1989, held at the Lincoln Memorial. Capital Jewish Museum Collection, Jewish Women International Collection. Gift of Meredith Jacobs, Jewish Women International.
Public Program
Thursday, November 2, 2023 6:30pm–9 pm
Members of Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County celebrate the completion of their newly constructed building, January 1958. Gift of Beth El of Montgomery County, Capital Jewish Museum Collection.
Public Program
Thursday, October 19, 2023 6–9 pm