The Obama Presidential Center Museum is scheduled to open to the public on Juneteenth 2026 in Chicago’s Jackson Park. Across four exhibit levels and nearly 35,000 square feet, the museum will tell the story of President and Mrs. Obama—America’s first Black president and First Lady—through history, democracy, public service and the power of people to create change.
Ralph Appelbaum Associates and batwin + robin Productions are credited on the project. The visitor experience is organized around four major levels: Toward a More Perfect Union, Working for the Common Good, The People’s House and We the People. Together, the galleries are intended to move from the nation’s founding ideals and unfinished work through the people, movements, policies, challenges and accomplishments of the Obama presidency, and on to civic questions facing the present and future.
Media, artifacts and participation
Among the highlighted spaces is Power of Words, described as an 88-foot-tall media canvas combining speech, sound, image, poetry and art to show how words can inspire action. The opening gallery, Toward a More Perfect Union, is an illuminated, prismatic space linking founding ideals and contradictions to the movements that have pushed American democracy toward greater justice and inclusion.
The Yes We Can Campaign circular gallery will use a panoramic media installation with volunteer voices and crowd-sourced campaign objects to immerse visitors in the 2008 grassroots movement. Democracy 101 is planned as a hands-on civics exhibit that explains how democracy works through interactive experiences intended to build knowledge, confidence and participation.
Panorama of a Presidency is a media room that surrounds visitors with a behind-the-scenes view of the activities and places that make up the daily work of the presidency. Detailed miniature White House rooms offer an intimate look at how the Obamas opened the People’s House through traditions, celebrations, performances and public programs. Life in the White House Artifacts will display fashion, state gifts and sports memorabilia, showing how the Obamas sought to make the White House feel open, inclusive and reflective of America’s diversity.
Inclusive design and contemporary art
Imagine Your Impact runs as a recurring interactive thread across all levels and culminates in a shared media experience with a large-scale digital art commission. The museum will also include contemporary works, including Norman Teague’s custom-designed benches and commissions by Jeffrey Gibson, Jules Julien and María Magdalena Campos-Pons.
Inclusive design is described as foundational. The museum is planned to support visitors of all ages and abilities through tactile stations, replicas, captioning, ASL interpretation, audio description, assistive listening, clear wayfinding and opportunities for participation.
The exhibits place the Obamas’ journey within a wider civic narrative rooted in Chicago’s South Side and shaped by national and global movements for justice. The stated aim is for visitors to leave with a deeper understanding of the Obamas’ legacy and a renewed sense of their own agency in democracy at home and abroad.