Stocks● Neutral
Obama Center opens with all-digital archive, immersive art
Chicago's Obama Presidential Center opened June 19 as the first all-digital presidential library. More than 28 commissioned art installations, an exhibit tracing American history before the 2008 campaign, and a panoramic Sky Room define the 19.3-acre campus.
Continue with
The Obama Presidential Center opened to the public on June 19 on Chicago's South Side, a 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park that houses the first all-digital presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.
The center is privately operated by the Obama Foundation. NARA holds legal custody of the official presidential records and artifacts at its College Park, Maryland facility. The center displays selected materials through a loan partnership.
The "vast majority" of the Obama administration's presidential records were "born digital," according to NARA, including 300 million emails, more than 3 million digital photographs, and 600 cubic feet of audiovisual material.
The 225-foot granite-clad museum tower sits on land that hosted the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, eight miles south of Chicago's downtown tourist corridor. The surrounding 552-acre park and the Woodlawn neighborhood give the campus a residential scale, with a train station a three-minute walk away.
More than 28 commissioned art installations appear across the grounds. Mark Bradford's "City of the Big Shoulders," a 38-foot-tall piece depicting Chicago, rises through the atrium. Njideka Akunyili Crosby's joint portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama hangs near the museum exit.