The Obama Presidential Museum

Working for the Common Good. The Obama Presidential Center Museum, 2026.

From Grant Park to Jackson Park.

On November 4, 2008, I joined hundreds of thousands of other Chicagoans in Grant Park, the site of Barack Obama’s election night victory speech. Ten years later, in what would feel like a full circle moment, I was invited to apply for a contract position as an image researcher for the team developing the Obama Presidential Museum for a site in nearby Jackson Park. 

As the research and procurement specialist for the Museum, I worked in response to direction from curatorial and design teams in-house and at Ralph Applebaum Associates, media producers at batwin+robin, and a host of Obama Foundation stakeholders. Over the course of seven years, as construction progressed and exhibition themes came into focus, I procured more than five thousand unique assets that would support exhibitions and media throughout the Museum. Working with photographers, filmmakers, archivists, network and agency representatives, I located content that dynamically supported our storytelling and negotiated terms favorable to the Museum’s budget and future activities. 

While the Museum presents stories centered around the Obamas historic two terms in the White House, it also encourages visitors to look back at the legacy of democratic movements – and forward, toward the work that has yet to be done.