The Obama Presidential Center Museum will open to the public on Juneteenth 2026 in Chicago's Jackson Park, with nearly 35,000 square feet of exhibitions arranged across four levels. Designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates with media production by batwin + robin Productions, the museum tells the story of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama, the first Black president and First Lady of the United States, through a narrative centered on history, democracy, public service and the capacity of ordinary people to create change.
Four levels, one civic arc
The visitor route passes through four major exhibition levels: Toward a More Perfect Union, Working for the Common Good, The People's House and We the People. The galleries are sequenced to move visitors from the nation's founding ideals and unfinished work, through the people, movements, policies and challenges that shaped the Obama presidency, and on to the civic questions of today and tomorrow. Artifacts, large-scale and immersive media, storytelling and hands-on digital and analog interactives are used to frame democracy as a living practice shaped by ordinary people working together.
Exhibition highlights
- Power of Words — an 88-foot-tall media canvas combining speech, sound, image, poetry and art, built around how words can move people toward change.
- Toward a More Perfect Union — an illuminated, prismatic opening gallery linking the founding ideals and contradictions to the movements that pushed American democracy toward greater justice and inclusion.
- Yes We Can Campaign — a circular gallery with a panoramic media installation of volunteer voices alongside crowd-sourced campaign objects, recalling the grassroots movement of 2008.
- Democracy 101 — a hands-on civics exhibit that walks visitors through how democracy works.
- Panorama of a Presidency — a surrounding media room offering a behind-the-scenes view of the activities and places that make up the daily work of the presidency.
- The People's House — detailed miniature White House rooms, plus a collection of fashion, state gifts and sports memorabilia, showing how the Obamas used traditions, celebrations, performances and public programs to open the residence.
- Imagine Your Impact — an interactive thread running across all levels and culminating in a shared media experience with a large-scale digital art commission.
Art and inclusive design
Contemporary artwork is distributed throughout the building. Alongside Norman Teague's custom-designed benches, commissioned works by Jeffrey Gibson, Jules Julien and María Magdalena Campos-Pons are intended to bring layered expressions of identity and hope into the experience.
Accessibility is treated as foundational rather than added on. The museum describes multisensory and accessible elements for visitors of all ages and abilities, including tactile stations and replicas, captioning, ASL interpretation, audio description, assistive listening, clear wayfinding and interactive opportunities to participate.
The exhibitions place the Obamas' journey inside a broader American civic narrative rooted in Chicago's South Side, shaped by national and global movements for justice and carried forward by people still making change in their communities, including participants in the Obama Foundation's Global Programs. The stated aim is that visitors leave with a deeper understanding of the Obamas' legacy and a renewed sense of their own agency in the ongoing work of democracy at home and abroad.