Obamas announce June dedication, opening of Jackson Park presidential center

Laura Turbay, Chicago Tribune on Mar 7, 2026

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CHICAGO — Following years of delays, the date is finally set for the public opening of the long-awaited Obama Presidential Center on June 19, with tickets for the museum going on sale in May.

On the heels of his speech at funeral services for the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., former President Barack Obama on Saturday announced on social media plans for him and former first lady Michelle Obama to host a dedication ceremony for the center on June 18.

“When visitors look up at the Obama Presidential Center’s museum building, they’ll see three simple powerful words: You are America,” Obama said in a video shared on X, using the words from his speech during the 50th anniversary of the civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 2015, which are inscribed on the building’s exterior.

He also thanked Chicago and South Side residents.

“Thank you for raising Michelle, for welcoming me as one of your own and for lifting up our family every step of the way. Thank you for embracing this presidential center, not as something of mine, but as of yours,” Obama said.

Michelle Obama, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago, shared on social media Saturday that “Chicago will always be home.”

“I’m not just a daughter from the South Side,” she said in a video shared on X, promoting the center. “But a mother from the South Side, a lawyer, an executive, an author from the South Side, I am a First Lady from the South Side of Chicago, and that is why this project is so incredibly important to me and my husband.”

Spanning 19-acres, the $850 million center in Jackson Park, which was first slated to open in 2021, then again in 2025 and now officially in summer of 2026, will feature a newly-minted main building and museum; a forum building that includes an auditorium, media suite and other programming rooms; a Chicago Public Library branch; and farther south, a 45,000-square-foot multipurpose athletic center.

The campus will also feature a playground and a landscaped park that connects with the Museum of Science and Industry.

Most of the amenities will be free and accessible to the public, except for the museum, which will sell tickets priced in line with other Chicago cultural institutions, the Obama Foundation said in a press statement on Saturday.

Embroiled in legal fights and delays, the Presidential Center has seen more than a decade go by since the president chose Chicago as the center’s home in 2015.

The center faced some delays in 2018 from a federal review process of the center’s effect on Jackson Park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the project’s potential environmental effects. Any impacts highlighted in the review had to be cleared before construction was allowed to begin, the Tribune reported.

Residents and organizers also fretted about gentrification in neighboring Woodlawn and South Shore and pressed for housing protections since Obama announced Jackson Park as the site of his museum. As the Obama center promoted Airbnb, a short-term rental company with close ties to the Obama family, this heightened community concerns that the center would exacerbate housing shortages and raise rents.

Last year, a federal lawsuit was filed alleging one of the main firms involved in managing the construction of the Obama Presidential Center racially discriminated against one of the project’s African American-owned local subcontractors, leaving them $40 million in the red and at risk of bankruptcy, the Tribune reported.

And while Obama visited Chicago last December to check in on the center’s construction and surprised a South Side school with a visit, much of Chicago waited expectantly for the center to come to fruition.

The opening ceremony will be livestreamed on June 18, featuring performances from “global icons” and “prominent” leaders’ remarks, according to its website. Celebrations featuring live performances, food, art, and storytelling are open to the public and planned on June 20 and 21.

“This grand opening is just the beginning,” Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett said in a release statement.

“The opening of the Obama Presidential Center will be a beacon of hope to the world and a place where we hope guests will be inspired to bring change home to their communities,” Jarrett said.

Hope is central to the presidential center’s message and is featured prominently on the foundation’s website.

“Hope is coming home,” Obama said in a video promoting the center’s opening. “And it wouldn’t have happened without all of you.”