Inside The Obama Presidential Center Museum

On Chicago’s South Side, the Obama Presidential Center is now open to the public, ending a journey years in the making. Set on 19.3 acres of Jackson Park, the campus sits near the Museum of Science and Industry and the University of Chicago, with the neighborhoods closely connected to Barack and Michelle Obama surrounding it. Ahead of its opening this past summer, I toured the Obama Presidential Center Museum and spoke with Dr. Louise Bernard, Director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum at The Obama Foundation, about creating a destination meant to tell the story of America’s first Black president and First Lady while asking visitors to consider their own place in the country’s future. “It has been such a journey to create a complex of the scale and the scope and to really think about all of the connections to be made between the story of the administration and the ongoing work of the foundation and how art brings people together,” Bernard told ESSENCE. “ All of that is created. All of that is woven together.” Courtesy of The Obama Foundation The museum occupies a vertical building designed to limit its footprint within historic Jackson Park. Elsewhere on the campus, visitors will find a Chicago Public Library branch and an athletic facility with an NBA regulation-size basketball court. A fruit and vegetable garden will accompany a classroom with a test kitchen, and the grounds also include a great lawn and an inclusively designed playground. Most of the OPC will remain …