The Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago’s Jackson Park is scheduled to open to the public on Juneteenth 2026, with four levels of exhibitions occupying nearly 35,000 square feet. The museum will present the story of President and Mrs. Obama, described as America’s first Black president and First Lady, through a narrative focused on history, democracy, public service and the capacity of people to create change.
Across those levels, visitors are invited to consider both the promise and the complexity of American democracy. The exhibits address the formative experiences that shaped President and Mrs. Obama, the work of the Obama presidency and the shared responsibility of building a more perfect union. Ralph Appelbaum Associates and batwin + robin Productions designed the experience.
Four connected exhibition levels
The visitor route 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. Together, the galleries trace a path from the nation’s founding ideals and unfinished work through the people, movements, policies, challenges and accomplishments associated with the Obama presidency, before turning to civic questions facing the present and future.
The museum combines artifacts, large-scale and immersive media, storytelling, and hands-on digital and analog interactives. Its approach presents democracy as a living practice shaped by ordinary people working together rather than as a fixed system. The design also emphasizes inclusive access for visitors of all ages and abilities, with tactile stations and replicas, captioning, ASL interpretation, audio description, assistive listening, clear wayfinding and opportunities for participation.
Exhibition highlights
Among the featured 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 serves as an illuminated, prismatic opening gallery. It 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 circular gallery uses a panoramic media installation with volunteer voices and crowd-sourced campaign objects to immerse visitors in the grassroots movement of 2008. Democracy 101 is a hands-on civics exhibit designed to help visitors explore how democracy works through approachable interactive experiences intended to build knowledge, confidence and participation.
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. On a smaller scale, detailed miniature White House rooms offer a playful, 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 intended 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 a range of traditions.
Imagine Your Impact is a recurring interactive thread across all levels, culminating in a shared media experience and a large-scale digital art commission. It invites visitors to see how individual actions can join together to create collective change. Contemporary artwork is woven throughout the museum: Norman Teague designed custom benches, and commissioned works by Jeffrey Gibson, Jules Julien and María Magdalena Campos-Pons bring layered visual expressions of identity and hope into the experience.
Civic narrative and legacy
The museum places President and Mrs. Obama’s journey within a broader American civic narrative rooted in Chicago’s South Side, shaped by national and global movements for justice and carried forward by people working for change in their communities, including participants in the Obama Foundation’s Global Programs. The intended visitor takeaway is a deeper understanding of the Obamas’ legacy and a renewed sense of personal agency in the ongoing work of democracy at home and abroad.