As a gateway to the South Side, the Obama center will also introduce visitors to lesser-known neighbors.
Among them, Washington Park to the west is anchored by a park designed by Olmsted and Vaux, as part of their original 19th-century design, and is linked to the lakefront by the linear Midway Plaisance Park.
The 345-acre Washington Park is home to the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, the oldest independent museum devoted to Black and African American history and culture (admission $12.50). Its cornerstone exhibit traces the African American experience from the trans-Atlantic slave trade through Reconstruction, the civil rights movement and the election of the country’s first Black president.
In South Shore, a few blocks from the Obama center, Theaster Gates — one of the 30 artists commissioned by the presidential center — and his business partner, Heiji Choy Black, just opened a new Korean teahouse, Han Cha, and a companion cocktail bar, Yunomi, in the Stony Island Arts Bank, a cultural hub founded by Mr. Gates.
Ms. Black said the partners aim to give patrons a “moment to unplug and enjoy sensory pleasures,” including several drink recipes contributed by area artists, like the Chicago sculptor Nick Cave, who is also featured at the center.