Watch Live: The Obama Center Grand Opening Ceremony

Arts & Entertainment

Watch Live: The Obama Center Grand Opening Ceremony

Matt Masterson | Eunice Alpasan | June 18, 2026, 11:05 am

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For Barack Obama, the South Side of Chicago marked the spot where “hope took root” for himself and his family. After Thursday, it will also be the spot where his legacy as the 44th president of the United States will always be remembered.

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“The story of the South Side has always been a story of possibility. And now we start writing a new chapter,” he said in a video Thursday. “Here you can do more than reflect on change. You can become it. That’s what the South Side taught us.”

Thousands gathered in Jackson Park Thursday morning for the star-studded launch of the Obama Presidential Center, a museum, library and education center celebrating the accomplishments of Obama’s eight years in office as well as his wife, Michelle, and their family.

Bronzeville resident and watch party attendee Sharon Latson worked with the nonprofit We Can Build It to bring more women and people of color to the job site at the Obama Presidential Center. Latson attended the watch party with her friends and brought a Juneteenth flag.

Latson, who watched Obama’s presidential victory speech at Grant Park in 2008, said she was most proud to attend Thursday’s watch party for her parents who passed away before they could see Obama become the first Black President of the U.S.

“I know if they knew I was here, what it would mean to them, and to pass it on to my children and my grandchildren,” Latson said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do something as exciting as this in my lifetime.

The festivities included performances by Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera and John Legend, as well as native Chicagoans Jennifer Hudson, and Common.

Joining the Obama family Thursday were former presidents Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Numerous other celebrities and politicians joined the event including Oprah, George Lucas, Stephen Colbert and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

The presidential center, which is expected to attract some 750,000 to 1 million people, has already completely sold out tickets through November. Those who are lucky enough to have nabbed entry tickets will discover four content-rich levels that balance big ideas with small moments, and touch on both the public and personal lives of Barack and Michelle Obama.

Due to its sheer height, the granite museum tower has been the center’s most visible element during construction. Its imposing mass and crowning latticework of lettering — excerpting one of former President Barack Obama’s speeches — have drawn mixed reviews.

Once inside, guests will encounter exhibits on historical movements from the American Revolution, through abolitionism, suffrage, the New Deal and the fight for civil rights in the 1960s.

As part of a stated mission to encourage young people to pick up the baton of public service, the museum lets people experience what it would be like to occupy the highest office in the land. A full-scale replica of the Oval Office gives people an opportunity to sit behind the Resolute Desk and “take a thoughtful moment to understand the power of that office,” said Louise Bernard, museum director.

Pointedly, an exhibit called “10 Letters a Day” appears just outside the Oval Office, highlighting Barack Obama’s practice of reading and responding to 10 letters every day out of the thousands he received. “It was his way of staying in touch with the American people,” Jarrett said.

After absorbing all of this information, some of which has proven so moving to early museum guests that boxes of tissues have been added to exhibit areas, visitors can climb up to the Sky Deck level. There, a contemplative space awaits, with windows looking out through the screen of letters.

Apart from the museum’s four levels, the rest of the center’s campus is free and open to the public, including the Sky Deck. Other buildings comprising the campus include: The Forum, which will serve as the center’s programming hub; Home Court, featuring an NBA-regulation basketball court; and a Chicago Public Library branch.

The grounds will operate like a public park, with landscaped gardens, paths and walkways. In a nod to sustainability, many of the trees, plants and shrubs are native species or were selected, in consultation with the Chicago Botanic Garden, for their resilience in a changing climate.