Obama Presidential Center opens, offering an art-filled, hopeful view of US history

The Obama Presidential Center (OPC) opened to the public on Juneteenth (19 June) in Chicago’s Hyde Park, with its centerpiece a towering granite-clad museum designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. The 19.3-acre, $850 million campus includes 28 site-specific works by 30 commissioned artists, including the late Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt (whose bronze Book Bird stands in the library courtyard) and Maya Lin (whose Seeing Through the Universe is installed on a terrace honoring Ann Dunham). A newly revealed commission is Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s dual portrait The Obamas: Springing Forth, incorporating archival and family imagery. Museum director Louise Bernard (hired in 2017) worked with commissions curator Virginia Shore and museum-design firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates to embed art throughout a visitor experience that mixes US history with interactive, motivational elements.

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