David Bowie Is

White text on a black background.

The button was manufactured by the Busy Beaver Button Company in conjunction with the David Bowie Is exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA). The exhibit, which originated at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and ran in Chicago from September, 2014 through early January, 2015, was the first major retrospective of David Bowie's career. The button was manufactured in the run-up to the exhibit—before the MCA had even officially announced it—and was distributed by the museum and its staff in the months leading up to the opening. The lightening bolt that replaces the “I” in David on the button is a reference to Bowie’s iconic Aladdin Sane album cover.