Former President Barack Obama‘s presidential center is set to open to the public this Juneteenth, with ticket sales sold out through July 4, as the namesake looks toward defining his legacy as the 44th U.S. president.
The 19.3-acre campus is a community-based center in Chicago‘s Jackson Park neighborhood. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama sought to construct a community space rather than a traditional presidential library, in line with their focus on public service and in giving back to the area where Barack began his political career, being elected as a state senator there in 1996.
The Obama Presidential Center has set records as the longest-delayed and most expensive presidential library in history. The project’s estimated cost ballooned from an initial estimate of $330 million, the Obama Foundation said.
The $850 million project includes a 235-foot tower with a museum and the Obama Foundation offices, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, a Nike-backed athletic facility with a 16,000-square-foot basketball court and dual football and soccer fields, an auditorium, a restaurant, public meeting spaces, a park and wetland area, a vegetable garden, children’s play areas, and more.
The museum seeks to highlight experiences of “the successes and challenges from the campaign trail to the Obama administration.”
“I want [attendees] to put my presidency in context,” Obama told CBS’s Stephen Colbert in an interview taped at the library and aired on The Late Show Tuesday.
There are four floors of curated exhibits on the stories of the former first couple, including “Yes We Can,” the 2008 Obama campaign, a replica of the Obama Oval Office, and a museum exhibit chronicling the former first lady’s fashion throughout the administration.
The campus will also have nearly 30 pieces of newly commissioned artworks and panoramic views of the surrounding South Side neighborhood and Lake Michigan from the Sky Room, according to the foundation. Additionally, two exclusive short films will be featured, dedicated to the former president’s campaign volunteers and Americans who wrote to him.
With the former president still heavily influential on the Democratic Party, the museum focuses on the theme of democracy and aims to position itself as not just a landmark but “a new space of possibilities.”
“I assume in my eulogy, somewhere it’ll be mentioned, ‘He was the first African American president,’” Obama, 64, told Colbert. “But what I want people to understand is that there was this extraordinary journey this country took to get to that point, and I was an episode in that.”
The presidential center has ticketed entry available through Nov. 30, with an expanding calendar of ticket sales to come.
“Pricing will be in line with other Chicago cultural institutions,” according to the Obama Foundation, with all other areas of the 19.3-acre campus being free and not requiring a ticket to enter.
Interested attendees may choose from two touring options: museum admission and a “Campus Experience Tour.” Tickets will range in price based on the day of entry.
Museum admission is listed as $30 for adults and $23 for children ages 11 and under, and it includes access to all four levels of the Museum, the Oval Office, and the Sky Room. The Campus Experience Tour is a 90-minute exclusive tour of the campus, including museum priority entry and access to the facility’s Presidential Suite. The Campus Experience Tour tickets are variably priced between $75 to $95 based on timing and availability.
The center will have discounted museum admission for state residents at $26 for adults and $15 for children, along with participating in the Illinois Resident Free Days, in which attendees can enjoy free admission to major Chicago museums with proof of residency.
Further, the opening weekend is set to feature a series of celebrations, performances, and remarks for Juneteenth and America as the nation approaches its semiquincentennial. Attendance by all living presidents was announced for the dedication ceremony of the center, though notably excluding President Donald Trump.
OBAMA ANNOUNCES PRESIDENTIAL CENTER DEDICATION, EXCLUDES INVITATION TO TRUMP
The exclusion of Trump, confirmed by People magazine, comes as the guest list includes all other living presidents, including former President George W. Bush. The ceremony is scheduled a few days after a UFC event at the White House, which coincides with Trump’s 80th birthday.
Former President Barack Obama’s presidential center is the latest presidential library to open. Former President Joe Biden has selected his home state of Delaware in September 2025 as the site for the future physical library as fundraising efforts commence. Trump has selected Miami as the location for his $1 billion presidential library, more than all his predecessors’ constructions.