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After years of anticipation (and plenty of construction cranes along the way), the Obama Presidential Center is finally ready to open its doors on Chicago’s South Side.
The Obama Foundation announced this week that the long-awaited cultural campus in Jackson Park will debut with a four-day grand opening celebration from June 18 through June 21, welcoming visitors to explore the site dedicated to the legacy of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
The festivities will kick off June 18 with a dedication ceremony at the campus’s John Lewis Plaza, which will be livestreamed globally and feature performances and remarks from prominent speakers. The next day, on June 19, the campus and its museum officially open to the public for the first time.
President Obama announced the news in a video shared on social media, framing the project as something bigger than a traditional presidential library.
“It is easy to look around right now and feel like the challenges we face are simply too big,” Obama said. “But hope is not about ignoring the hard stuff. It is that thing inside us that insists something better awaits if we are willing to work for it. Here on the South Side of Chicago, hope is getting a permanent home.”
“Starting on June 19, you can visit the Obama Presidential Center,” he added. “This is not a monument to the past; it is a living destination for people who refuse to accept the status quo.”
Spanning almost 20 acres in historic Jackson Park, the Obama Presidential Center is designed as a civic campus rather than a traditional archive. Visitors will find a museum devoted to the Obama presidency, a forum building for public programming, landscaped park space, public art installations and even a branch of the Chicago Public Library. The site will also include an accessible playground and outdoor spaces connecting the campus to nearby lagoons and the Museum of Science and Industry.
Most of the campus will be free and open to the public, though the museum will require timed-entry tickets when reservations become available in May.
The center also plans to honor the thousands of workers who helped bring the project to life. A 30-foot-long Worker Appreciation Wall inside the Forum will feature roughly 4,500 engraved names, from construction crews to designers and foundation staff, highlighted in bronze.
“The Obama Presidential Center was built by thousands of hands and minds—many rooted on the South Side and across Chicago—working together to build something extraordinary,” said Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation.
Once the ribbon is cut, the celebration will continue with live performances, food, art and family-friendly events across the campus on June 20 and 21, effectively turning opening weekend into a massive neighborhood festival.
“We have always believed in the power of ordinary people to come together to make extraordinary change,” Jarrett said. “The opening of the Obama Presidential Center will be a beacon of hope to the world.”