The Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago's Jackson Park is set to open to the public on Juneteenth 2026, with four levels of exhibitions across nearly 35,000 square feet. The museum presents the story of President and Mrs. Obama, America's first Black president and First Lady, through a narrative built around history, democracy, public service and the power of people to create change.
Exhibition design is by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, with media production by batwin + robin Productions. The visitor journey runs through four major exhibition levels — Toward a More Perfect Union, Working for the Common Good, The People's House and We the People — moving 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 of the present and future.
The museum draws on artifacts, large-scale and immersive media, storytelling, and hands-on digital and analog interactives, framing democracy as a living practice shaped by ordinary people working together.
Signature galleries
- Power of Words — an 88-foot-tall media canvas combining speech, sound, image, poetry and art, exploring how words can inspire action and move people toward change.
- Toward a More Perfect Union — an illuminated, prismatic opening gallery connecting the nation's founding ideals and contradictions to the people and movements that have pushed American democracy toward greater justice and inclusion.
- Yes We Can Campaign gallery — a circular space with a panoramic media installation featuring volunteer voices alongside crowd-sourced campaign objects, recalling the grassroots movement of 2008.
- Democracy 101 — a hands-on civics exhibit that uses approachable interactive experiences to build knowledge, confidence and participation.
- Panorama of a Presidency — a sweeping media room that surrounds visitors with a behind-the-scenes view of the many 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. A collection of Life in the White House artifacts — fashion, state gifts and sports memorabilia — is presented as a way of showing how the Obamas sought to make the residence feel open, inclusive, personal and reflective of America's diversity and vibrancy while upholding and expanding a range of traditions.
Participation, artwork and access
Imagine Your Impact runs as a recurring interactive thread across all levels of the museum, culminating in a shared media experience with a large-scale digital art commission intended to show how individual actions can join together to create collective change. Contemporary artwork is woven throughout the galleries, including custom-designed benches by Norman Teague and commissioned works by artists Jeffrey Gibson, Jules Julien and María Magdalena Campos-Pons.
Inclusive design is described as foundational to the project. The museum is designed to support visitors of all ages and abilities, integrating multisensory experiences that range from tactile stations and replicas to captioning, ASL interpretation, audio description, assistive listening, clear wayfinding and interactive opportunities to take part.
The exhibits place the Obamas' journey within a wider American civic narrative rooted in Chicago's South Side, shaped by national and global movements for justice and carried forward by people who continue to make change in their communities, including participants in the Obama Foundation's Global Programs. 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 the ongoing work of democracy at home and abroad.