The Obama Foundation has commissioned ten more artists to make works for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which is scheduled to open in spring 2026. Nine new site-specific pieces will be created by Nick Cave, Nekisha Durrett, Jenny Holzer, Jules Julien, Idris Khan, Aliza Nisenbaum, Jack Pierson, Alison Saar, Kiki Smith and Marie Watt.
“President and Mrs Obama have always believed in the ability of artists to help us see our common humanity and imagine a more just future,” Valerie Jarrett, the chief executive of the Obama Foundation, said in a statement. “These extraordinary commissions will not only enrich the Obama Presidential Center, but they will also invite every visitor to feel inspired, respected and connected.”
Many of the new commissions use small elements as the basis for monumental works, an allegory for democracy and the importance of individual people forming a larger whole. Several of the works also reference significant historical moments, especially during the Civil Rights era in the United States.
In their first collaboration, Cave and Watt, will make a large installation of beaded nets and sculptural “jingle elements”, combining Indigenous and Black traditions. Meanwhile, Julien will create a mural of tiny dots about collective action and democracy. And Durrett will reimagine Harriet Tubman’s shawl using thousands of ceramic tiles.
Khan’s new ceiling work will feature hundreds of hand-stamped words from President Obama’s 2015 speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights protest marches from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama. And Holzer will use redacted FBI files to create a memorial to the Freedom Riders—Civil Rights activists who rode integrated buses together through the Deep South in 1961 in defiance of local segregation laws.
Other commissions will be more universal in subject matter. Smith will create her largest bronze sculpture ever, depicting the moon and stars. Pierson will make a sculpture spelling out “hope”, one of Obama’s core campaign slogans, with found letters. And Nisenbaum will create a mural of civic life for the centre’s new public-library space. Meanwhile, Saar will make a bronze sculpture inspired by both the Statue of Liberty and the Chicago blues.
“Each of these commissions is a meditation on civic life,” Louise Bernard, the founding director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum, said in a statement. “From the intimacy of painting to the scale of public sculpture, these works speak to themes at the heart of the centre: resilience, memory, identity and hope. Together, they create a deeply textured cultural landscape that reflects our past, animates the present and gestures towards the future.”
The Obama Foundation previously commissioned works by the artists Lindsay Adams, Spencer Finch, Richard Hunt, Maya Lin and Julie Mehretu for the Obama Presidential Center. Mehretu’s work is arguably the most prominent—an 83ft-tall abstract painted-glass window that climbs one side of the building. More commissions are expected to be announced as the opening of the centre approaches.
