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 spread across nearly 35,000 square feet. Designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates with media design by batwin + robin Productions, the museum presents the story of President and Mrs. Obama, America's first Black president and First Lady, through a narrative of history, democracy, public service and the power of people to create change.
Visitors move through 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 line from the nation's founding ideals and unfinished work, through the people, movements, policies, challenges and accomplishments that shaped the Obama presidency, and into the civic questions facing the present and the future.
The interpretive approach combines artifacts, large-scale and immersive media, storytelling, and hands-on digital and analog interactives. The stated aim is to connect history to action and 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 the idea that words can inspire action and move people toward change.
- Toward a More Perfect Union — an illuminated, prismatic opening gallery that links 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 — a circular gallery with a panoramic media installation featuring volunteer voices, alongside crowd-sourced campaign objects from the 2008 grassroots movement.
- 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 activities and places that make up the daily work of the presidency.
- Life in the White 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 make the residence feel open, inclusive and personal.
Imagine Your Impact runs as a recurring interactive thread across all levels of the museum, culminating in a shared media experience built around a large-scale digital art commission. The piece is intended to show how individual actions can join together to create collective change.
Contemporary artwork is woven throughout the building. Alongside Norman Teague's custom-designed benches, commissioned works by Jeffrey Gibson, Jules Julien and María Magdalena Campos-Pons bring layered visual expressions of identity and hope into the visitor experience.
Inclusive design
Accessibility is described as a foundational element of the design rather than an addition. The museum integrates multisensory experiences for visitors of all ages and abilities, including tactile stations and replicas, captioning, ASL interpretation, audio description, assistive listening, clear wayfinding and interactive opportunities for participation.
The museum places the Obamas' journey within a broader American civic narrative rooted in the South Side of Chicago, shaped by national and global movements for justice, and carried forward by people working in their own communities, including participants in the Obama Foundation's Global Programs. The intended takeaway is a deeper understanding of the Obamas' legacy and a renewed sense of visitors' own agency in the ongoing work of democracy at home and abroad.