The Obama Presidential Center Museum is opening to the public on Juneteenth 2026 in Chicago’s Jackson Park, with four levels of exhibits 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 about history, democracy, public service and the power of people to create change.
Across the four exhibit levels, visitors are invited to explore the promise and complexity of American democracy, the formative experiences that shaped President and Mrs. Obama, the work of the Obama presidency and the continuing responsibility to build a more perfect union.
A journey through four exhibition levels
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. Together, the galleries move 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 of today and tomorrow.
The museum combines artifacts, large-scale and immersive media, storytelling and hands-on digital and analog interactives. Its stated aim is to connect history to action and to present democracy as a living practice shaped by ordinary people working together.
Media, campaigns and civics
Among the exhibition highlights is Power of Words, an 88-foot-tall media canvas that brings together 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 to the people and movements that have pushed American democracy toward greater justice and inclusion.
The Yes We Can Campaign circular gallery features a panoramic media installation with volunteer voices and crowd-sourced campaign objects, immersing visitors in the grassroots movement of 2008. Democracy 101 is a hands-on civics exhibit that explores how democracy works through approachable, interactive experiences intended to build knowledge, confidence and participation.
The presidency and the People’s House
Panorama of a Presidency is 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.
Life in the White House Artifacts presents fashion, state gifts and sports memorabilia that reveal how the Obamas made the White House feel open, inclusive, personal and reflective of America’s diversity and vibrancy as they sought to uphold and expand a range of traditions.
Participation, art and inclusive design
Imagine Your Impact is a recurring interactive thread across all levels of the museum, culminating in a shared media experience with 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. 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 experience.
Inclusive design is described as a foundational part of the project. The museum is designed to support visitors of all ages and abilities through tactile stations and replicas, captioning, ASL interpretation, audio description, assistive listening, clear wayfinding and interactive opportunities for participation.
At its heart, the museum presents a story about possibility: what becomes possible when ordinary people organize, participate, lead, listen and act in common purpose. The exhibits place President and Mrs. Obama’s 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 who continue to make change in their communities, including participants in the Obama Foundation’s Global Programs.