The Obama Presidential Center Museum is scheduled to open to the public on Juneteenth 2026 in Chicago’s Jackson Park. The museum will occupy four exhibition levels across nearly 35,000 square feet and present the story of President and Mrs. Obama, described as 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 named in the project materials. The visitor experience is organized around four major exhibition levels: Toward a More Perfect Union, Working for the Common Good, The People’s House and We the People. The sequence moves from the nation’s founding ideals and unfinished work through the people, movements, policies, challenges and accomplishments associated with the Obama presidency, then toward contemporary civic questions.
Four levels, one civic narrative
The museum’s exhibits are intended to connect history to action. They combine artifacts, large-scale and immersive media, storytelling, and hands-on digital and analog interactives. The design positions democracy as a living practice shaped by ordinary people working together, rather than as a fixed set of institutions.
Among the highlighted spaces is Power of Words, an 88-foot-tall media canvas combining speech, sound, image, poetry and art to show how words can inspire action and move people toward change. Toward a More Perfect Union is an illuminated, prismatic opening gallery that links the nation’s founding ideals and contradictions with the people and movements that have pushed American democracy toward greater justice and inclusion.
The Yes We Can Campaign gallery is circular and features a panoramic media installation with volunteer voices and crowd-sourced campaign objects. It is designed to immerse visitors in the grassroots movement of 2008. Democracy 101 adds a hands-on civics exhibit where visitors can explore how democracy works through approachable, interactive experiences intended to build knowledge, confidence and participation.
Inside the presidency and the White House
Panorama of a Presidency is a sweeping 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. At a smaller scale, 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 brings together fashion, state gifts and sports memorabilia. The collection is framed as a way to show how the Obamas made the White House feel open, inclusive, personal and reflective of America’s diversity and vibrancy while seeking to uphold and expand traditions.
Imagine Your Impact is a recurring interactive thread across all museum levels. It culminates in a shared media experience with a large-scale digital art commission that invites visitors to see how individual actions can join together to create collective change. Contemporary artwork is woven throughout the museum, including Norman Teague’s custom-designed benches and commissioned works by Jeffrey Gibson, Jules Julien and María Magdalena Campos-Pons.
Accessible design and a broader narrative
Inclusive design is described as foundational. The museum is planned to support visitors of all ages and abilities with tactile stations and replicas, captioning, ASL interpretation, audio description, assistive listening, clear wayfinding and interactive opportunities for participation.
The exhibits place the Obamas’ journey within a broader American civic narrative rooted in the South Side of Chicago and shaped by national and global movements for justice. The material also connects the story to people who continue to make change in their communities, including participants in the Obama Foundation’s Global Programs. The museum’s stated aim is for visitors to leave with a deeper understanding of the Obamas’ legacy and a renewed sense of their own agency in the ongoing work of democracy.