A First Look at the Art in the New Obama Presidential Center
The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, a $850 million campus designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, is set to open later this month in Jackson Park. The center features over 28 commissioned works by contemporary artists including Idris Khan, Theaster Gates, Lorna Simpson, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Maya Lin, alongside a basketball court, a Chicago Public Library branch, gardens, and civic spaces. Curators Virginia Shore, Crystal Moten, and Louise Bernard assembled the collection to intertwine art with the Obama legacy and the broader public art landscape of Chicago's South Side.