Thousands of visitors attended the opening of the 20-acre campus in Jackson Park on the city’s South Side, where the center features a museum, library, conference facilities, athletic spaces, gardens, playgrounds, walking paths and public art installations.

Barack and Michelle Obama began the inaugural day with a public story-time event for children and families, reading from Maurice Sendak’s 1963 classic “Where the Wild Things Are.” The event was designed to highlight the center’s focus on youth engagement, education and civic participation.

Emily Bittner, vice president of communications at the Obama Presidential Center, said the facility aims to provide a space where young people can “discover their voices, explore new ideas, and develop the skills and confidence to shape the future.”

According to the Obama Foundation, the center is intended to serve as a gathering place for local residents and international visitors while advancing leadership development and community-focused initiatives. The foundation said the opening represented the culmination of years of planning and community engagement efforts.

The eight-story complex, located along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, cost approximately $850 million to build and was financed entirely through private donations raised by the Obama Foundation. The foundation said no public funds were used for construction.

The center will also function as the headquarters of the Obama Foundation, which oversees leadership training programs and youth development initiatives in the United States and abroad.

Ahead of the public opening, the center hosted a private event on Thursday attended by about 3,000 invited guests, including former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, as well as current and former elected officials, civic leaders and prominent figures from the entertainment industry.

Among those in attendance were Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom.

President Donald Trump, who has frequently criticized Obama and Biden, was not invited to the opening ceremonies. Trump later shared an artificial intelligence-generated image depicting the center with a large garbage bag on its roof.

The opening celebrations also featured performances and appearances by musicians and entertainers including Bono, The Edge, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Questlove, John Legend, Marc Anthony, Eddie Vedder and Christina Aguilera, alongside several high-profile guests from film, television and media.

Speaking at the commemoration of the World Program of Action for Youth, launched 30 years ago, Al-Ibrahim stressed that the younger generation must be at the center of global strategies.

“In a world where many struggle to embrace long-term vision, youth remain the key factor,” he said. “They possess the future more than we ever will. The lessons from our experiences are clear: involve youth, invest in them, and depend on them today.”

Al-Ibrahim highlighted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as an example of youth-driven leadership, noting that his transformative vision has helped channel the energy and ambitions of Saudi Arabia’s younger generation into tangible national progress.

“It is not merely about population size, but about leadership,” he added, citing Saudi Vision 2030 as “the best model of long-term planning and sustainable implementation.”

The minister also pointed to global challenges facing young people, warning that nearly half of the world’s population is under 30, yet youth unemployment is three times higher than that of adults. Millions remain outside formal education, training, or employment systems.

Al-Ibrahim cautioned that the global community’s response will determine whether demographic trends become “opportunities that bear fruit or burdens that weigh down the entire global system.”