Presidential museum showcases political and personal sides of Obama with sprawling community campus

CHICAGO (AP) — Former President Barack Obama’s influence in his presidential museum runs deep, from the location on Chicago's South Side to textured stone adorning its dramatic tower to striped reading chairs that are similar to ones in his own home.

The Obama Presidential Center opens to the general public on Juneteenth after a celebratory dedication in Chicago with dignitaries. But tens of thousands of people — friends and family of museum staff, students and journalists — have already been offered a sneak peek at the nearly 20-acre campus as crews finish final art installations and landscaping.

The roughly $850 million project covers both the political and personal realms of the nation’s first Black president. Campaign memorabilia and presidential artifacts are displayed in the admission-based museum tower while public spaces of the sprawling campus feature other things important to Obama: a new library, basketball court and picnic area with grills.

“This is a safe space for people to come and, yes, reflect on the historic moments of this presidency and the campaigns, but also to come together as a community to think about what change you can bring to your own neighborhood,” Josh Harris, the Obama Foundation’s vice president of public engagement, said during a recent tour with The Associated Press.

Here’s a closer look at the top attractions of the campus expected to draw as many as 1 million visitors annually.

Obama's presidential museum will be the first fully digital museum of its kind, ditching scores of official papers on display.

Instead, visitors will experience high-tech and hands-on exhibits spanning the campaigns, key moments of Obama's presidency and life at the White House.

One of the largest attractions is a life-sized replica of the Oval Office.

On a recent day, a stream of visitors, including school children, walked through the circular room, stopping to sit behind the desk and pose for pictures. The top drawer holds a copy of a hand-written letter from predecessor former President George W. Bush and Obama’s beloved BlackBerry phone.

“We want to make sure that people from all walks of life have the opportunity sit behind the Resolute Desk,” said Harris. “You think about the possibilities that if a young organizer from the South Side of Chicago can be president, you can be president too.

Other sections of the museum detail the Affordable Care Act, immigration policies along with smaller moments like when Obama unexpectedly sang during a 2015 eulogy for those killed in a South Carolina church shooting. A large television screen plays a clip of Obama singing “Amazing Grace.”

Peppered throughout are areas for personal reflection, which museum organizers say is key.

“We're passing that baton and inviting people to bring change home, however change may be defined, both small or large,” said Louise Bernard, the museum's director.

When Obama touted the museum’s contents at its groundbreaking in 2021, he predicted one of the top draws.

“We want this center to be more than a static museum or a source of archival research,” Obama joked at the site. “It won’t just be a collection of campaign memorabilia or Michelle’s ballgowns, although I know everybody will come see those.”

Roughly a dozen outfits on mannequins are behind glass, including a black and red dress designed by Narciso Rodriguez that the former first lady wore on Election Night in 2008 in Chicago.

Visitors will also get a chance to touch swatches of the fabrics, including the rose gold chain mail Atelier Versace evening gown she wore at her final state dinner in 2016.

The museum’s location is near where Barack Obama started his political career, taught law at the University of Chicago and where the family lived. Michelle Obama also grew up on the South Side.

A life-long basketball lover, Obama sought a glass-paneled professional grade basketball court which will be used for community programs.

The former first lady designed a garden, where lettuce and strawberry plants sprouted on a recent day. There’s also charcoal grills that’ll be available to the public, which Obama has envisioned since he first pitched the plan in community meetings nearly a decade ago.

“President Obama always talked about his feelings of being in Chicago and one of his memorable moments was grilling in the park,” Harris said.

The Obamas' design tastes and love of history are also evident.

The museum campus features dozens of commissioned works of art while different parts of the campus are named after prominent figures. The central “John Lewis Plaza,” named for the late congressman and civil rights leader, is designed to be a public gathering spot.

Inside a new Chicago Public Library branch, a 70-foot mural depicts literary figures including Walt Whitman and James Baldwin. At the center is a boy in an orange shirt being read to by Toni Morrison. He represents a young Obama.

Its presidential reading room features thousands of books chosen by the Obamas, ranging from presidential biographies to best-selling fiction. One of Obama's favorite parts are two high-backed chairs with blue, yellow and black stripes. They were selected by the former president as top-notch reading chairs similar to ones he has at home.

Tickets are $30, the highest of any U.S. presidential museum or library. Next on the list is the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, where tickets are $29.

Obama Foundation leaders say the prices are justified for the state-of-the-art facility.

Tickets at the adjacent Griffin Museum of Science and Industry are $25.95. In downstate Illinois, tickets to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield run $15.

Along with free days and discounts for Illinois residents, Obama Foundation officials also argue the most of the campus is free with only four floors of the museum tower requiring tickets.

Anyone can walk the campus, use the playground, library, sledding hill or grilling area. The tower's top floor, which feature panoramic views of the nation's third-largest city, is also free.

“The idea behind this institution, this campus, was to make it accessible to as many people as possible,” Harris said.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama's dresses on display at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Visitors tour a replica of former President Barack Obama's oval office at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

The President's reading room at the Chicago Public Library at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Visitors photograph statues of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Statues of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

The Obama Presidential Center is seen Thursday, April 9, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

The Obama Presidential Center is seen Thursday, April 9, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

HAVANA (AP) — On a recent afternoon in Cuba, the temperature climbed and anxiety grew among the residents of a Havana street.

Their focus was an improvised dump site on the sidewalk with rotting food scraps, torn bags, cardboard and rubble. Swarms of flies and stray cats gathered around the trash whose stench wafted on the breeze from the nearby sea.

“What you’re looking at is depressing,” lamented María Odalys Ramírez, a 63-year-old who lives across the street from the capital's iconic Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital. “The trash in this area, the flies, the rats, the filth — it’s completely unsanitary.”

For months, residents of Havana — home to 2 million of Cuba’s almost 10 million residents — have lived with piles of garbage accumulating on almost every street corner. The situation deteriorated after a U.S. energy blockade triggered power outages, water shortages and a fuel crisis that brought state-run garbage trucks to a standstill.

Without garbage collection, residents have begun burning waste in the streets, raising alarm among health officials over potentially toxic smoke.

Residents fear the coming months will bring worse conditions as summer heat intensifies and hurricane season begins.

A citywide tour by The Associated Press revealed identical scenes across Havana neighborhoods where locals said garbage trucks pass only irregularly.

In the city center and on the outskirts, cars, bicycles and pedestrians weave around the trash piles. Others pick through it, hoping to salvage something useful.

Havana as of last July was producing the equivalent of about 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools of solid waste every day, according the latest municipal figures available. Even then, municipal services collected just 57%.

The “improper management of urban solid waste” has been identified as a primary environmental challenge in Cuba's national strategy, said Odalys Goicochea, an official at the ministry of science, technology and the environment.

Now, Goicochea warned, the current garbage collection situation, combined with rising temperatures and impending rains, could worsen the situation. The heat and moisture threaten to trigger a proliferation of disease-carrying flies and mosquitoes.

The crisis has sparked citizen initiatives to clean up neighborhoods.

One is El Batazo, an initiative operating across eight Havana blocks. A collector rings a bell twice daily to pick up pre-sorted household trash, while other project members sweep the streets.

Members then sell recyclable raw materials like aluminum and glass, repurpose food scraps to feed livestock and place the remaining trash into a container for later transport to a landfill.

“The fundamental impact of this project is proving to the community that it can be done,” said Evelyn Martínez, a collaborator at El Batazo. “It is entirely possible to live in a cleaner environment, give value to what we call ‘trash' and put it to good use.”

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A bicycle taxi driver waits for customers, next to a pile of trash in Havana, Cuba, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man searches through a pile of trash for items to salvage in Havana, Cuba, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)