The Obama Presidential Center Opens
Thousands explore the presidential center’s sprawling grounds, dance and see the museum for the first time.
Today was for the people. And there were thousands.
The day after four former presidents and four former first ladies, celebrities, foreign dignitaries and elected officials came out in full force for the opening ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, visitors from around the world and down the block came to witness the festivities for themselves on opening day.
On a warm and sunny Juneteenth mid-morning, people began filtering onto the grounds, some making their way to the one-acre playground while others lined up for photos with the bronze sculpture of the Obamas at the base of the museum building. Hundreds of people lined up for ticketed-entry to the museum—sold out weeks ago—to be among the first to see the four-floor exhibits on display.
And Mechelle Best, a Barbados immigrant currently living in Los Angeles, was one of those lucky ticket holders. Hours earlier, she had stepped off her flight to make her way to the Center just in time for her 11 a.m. entry. She went through the museum slowly, methodically, listening to the Obamas captured in exhibits on every level.
“Hearing the president and hearing the first lady speak, you know, it’s just so refreshing. It’s so grounding. It makes me feel hopeful, ” Best says.
She was particularly taken with the exhibits that represented the work Mrs. Obama has done in and out of the White House including her work with young girls, health initiatives, the garden initiative. She also acknowledged the fashion statements the former first lady made, but what resonated was the messaging and impact all that work together made on the country and the world at large.
“Healthy lifestyles, educating women, educating young girls, giving them opportunities—those things, to me, are more critical than how wonderful she looks,” Best says. “She always did look wonderful, but the substance of it … it’s amazing.”
Dee Hawkins, who hails from the same South Shore neighborhood as the Obamas, was also among the few to tour the museum.
“We are here today on Juneteenth to celebrate the grand opening for the public to consume all that they have put into the museum,” Hawkins says. “But, we are really looking forward to seeing Michelle’s exhibits. Ooh! The dresses!”
Ahead of the opening, Mrs. Obama teased some of the attire that would be on display in the museum—different eras including the eye-catching, red-and-black sheath by Narciso Rodriguez she wore in the 2008 historic moment as the first lady-elect took the stage at Grant Park in Chicago alongside her husband, Barack Obama, the first Black man elected to president of the United States.
The dress by the American designer, at the time, drew a mixed public reaction. Some harsh assessments by critics described the frock as an “eyesore” and “lava lamp look” while other fashion-forward insiders said her decision to wear a cutting-edge label “asserted her individuality.”
As the line inched closer to the entrance, Hawkins expressed her admiration for the former first lady.
“Gosh, everything she did, not just the fashion or the hair that represented someone who looked like me, but the other aspects of who she is and how she supports her family, a woman who is close and connected to her community,” Hawkins says. “It’s a kinship you just can’t explain.”
The $850 million, 19-acre Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park is situated where Mrs. Obama grew up, a background she spoke to earlier in the week before the opening.
“The South Side of Chicago is my home, every inch of this neighborhood,” Mrs. Obama said. “And to be able to look out across and see the South Side of Chicago, to see the beauty of our parks, to finally be able to see that there’s a lagoon over there that is safe to walk in, where children are playing and couples are holding hands, that Chicago wasn’t available to me my entire life.”
Among the first stops for Chicago native Tracey Copeland, who was celebrating her 57th birthday, was the Eleanor Roosevelt Fruit and Vegetable Garden where dozens of raised garden beds with cucumbers, okra, sweet peppers and blooming marigolds are just taking root. She was there to get ideas from the Center’s garden that her 88-year-old mother would want to include in her own garden. And the more she looked around, the more she said she saw how the former first lady is represented.
“I see her all through the garden, all through the campus,” Copeland says, who like many scouring the grounds on Friday, came to reflect on the Obamas and their time in the White House. “I love Michelle Obama. I don’t understand why anyone does not. She is a light. She is always positive. She speaks for women.”
The garden pays tribute to Mrs. Roosevelt, a first lady who inspired the planting of Victory Gardens at the White House and all across the country during World War II. It also harkens back to Mrs. Obama’s famous efforts during her husband’s presidency to inspire healthy eating and educate people of all ages about where food comes from. Dozens of visitors huddled around an Obama Center guide to learn Mrs. Obama’s favorite vegetable is a sweet potato. All of the plants in the garden are grown without the use of pesticides and would be donated to local food pantries.
Earlier in the day, Dwyane Wade, a retired National Basketball Association guard and a co-owner of the Utah Jazz, hosted a clinic in the Center’s Home Court, a 60,000-square-foot building with an NBA regulationsize court, where he spoke with Chicago teens participating in a local After School Matters program. The day-one activities demonstrate what the Obamas envisioned in the Center, making it an active community hub for all.
Across campus, hundreds of people lined up to enter a new branch of the Chicago Public Library at the Center, taking selfies with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson greeting visitors. Others made their way along winding paths to the playground or overlooks of the campus to capture sweeping views of the museum building and dance performances in John Lewis Plaza.
And as the day winded down, people strolled on the walking paths along the lagoon and others sat quietly under the shade of trees.
For Best, the journey to the South Side of Chicago to see the Center was about renewal. She knew the museum would make her feel good inside. She knew it would remind her of the Obama era. And she remembers exactly what his election meant to people like her in the United States and also around the world.
“Having the spotlight on them again … reminds us that there is hope and that together we can make things different,” she says. “It’s a reminder we all need.”
Updated: June 19, 2026