The Obama Presidential Center will open its doors on the South Side of Chicago on June 19, following a dedication ceremony on June 18
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NEED TO KNOW
- The Obama Presidential Center will open its doors in Chicago on June 19, following an opening ceremony on June 18, the Obama Foundation announced on March 7
- Donald Trump is not invited to the grand opening, but George W. Bush will be
- The center, located on the South Side of Chicago, has been in the works for years, with Barack and Michelle Obama first celebrating the groundbreaking in September 2021
There will be more than one former president at the opening ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center, just not the one who's currently in office.
The center — which is located on the South Side of Chicago, in the city's Jackson Park neighborhood — will officially open to the public on June 19, and it is bookended by various celebrations running from June 18 to June 21, the Obama Foundation announced on Saturday, March 7.
The dedication ceremony for the community-based center will be held June 18, and it will feature “legendary performances by global icons and powerful remarks from today’s most prominent voices,” the foundation said in a press release obtained by PEOPLE.
Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett told MS NOW that President Donald Trump is not invited to the grand opening, but former President George W. Bush will be.
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An Obama Foundation spokesperson did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Trump’s attendance on Saturday, March 7. PEOPLE has also reached out to the White House for comment.
Barack, 64, and Michelle Obama announced the opening of the Obama Presidential Center — which features a museum, new library branch and more on its sprawling campus, which intends to expand on the couple’s legacy of public service — in several social media posts.
“When visitors look up at the Obama Presidential Center’s Museum building, they’ll see three words: ‘You are America.’ Those words come from a speech I gave in Selma on the 50th anniversary of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge,” Barack wrote a video of the center on Instagram. “They’re meant to honor the men and women who came before us, and to inspire the next generation to be messengers of hope.”
“That hope will have a home at the Obama Presidential Center,” the former president continued. “Today, Michelle and I are proud to announce that we will be hosting the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center on June 18th in Chicago, and welcoming the public on June 19th. We can’t wait for you to visit.”
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Credit: E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty
The former first lady, 62, meanwhile, wrote, “Chicago will always be home. It’s where Craig and I grew up. Where Barack and I met and fell in love. Where we taught our girls to tie their shoes and reach for the stars. Where the ride of a lifetime took root — and took off. So when it came time to decide where we’d build the Obama Presidential Center, Barack and I knew exactly where it had to be: Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago.”
The center, the Chicago native continued, is “a way of giving back to the community that has given us so much. But it’s more than that, too. It’s a tribute to the big-hearted, open-armed people and communities who have defined this city — and buoyed our family through thick and thin. It’s a launchpad for the next generation of young leaders who are going to change the world.”
The Obama Presidential Center has been in the works for years, with Barack and Michelle first celebrating the groundbreaking of the project in September 2021.
Barack previously said he opted to build the center instead of a presidential library in order to bolster the Jackson Park neighborhood on the city's South Side, which is both where his wife grew up and where he began his political career, first being elected as a state senator there in 1996.
Tickets to the museum will be available starting in May, and "pricing will be in line with other Chicago cultural institutions," per the Obama Foundation. All other areas of the 19.3-acre campus are free and do not require a ticket to enter.
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