Long before the Barack Obama Presidential Center welcomed its first visitors, Daria Smith was helping imagine what it could become.
By the time the campus opened last week on Juneteenth, the St. Louis native had spent nearly five years helping turn that vision into reality.
“It finally kind of hit me,” she said, “that I’ve been a part of something that’s really going to make an impact in the community.”
A past St. Louis American Foundation scholarship recipient, Smith joined the Obama Foundation in 2019. She began her work long before the center was a campus, a museum or even a construction site.
“It was on paper,” she said. “It wasn’t even a thing yet.”
But she stayed with it — through planning, design, community conversations and the long stretch of construction — until the moment the public walked in.
“It’s still really emotional,” she said of opening weekend. “This was the moment where we could finally step back and see what kind of impact it’s going to make.”
And through all of it, she carried St. Louis with her.
“Every time I get to say it, people are like, ‘Oh, you’re from Chicago?’ No — I’m from St. Louis,” she said. “That’s my hometown. They made me who I am.”
Free access to the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, the Zoo and visiting places like the City Museum shaped her understanding of what cultural institutions could be — and who they should serve.
“All of those experiences influenced how I view cultural institutions,” she said. “And it led me to a career in this field.”
That foundation also shaped her belief in accessibility.
“Growing up, all of these places were free,” she said.
At the Obama Center, she helped ensure the campus would remain open and welcoming. While the museum requires tickets, the grounds — playgrounds, gardens, public art, the library branch and gathering spaces — are free to all.
“We’re right across the street from a high school,” she said. “We’re able to provide a space for those students to hang out, be safe, have dialogue, and learn.”
Smith worked on exhibition graphics alongside fellow St. Louis native Bailey Sinclair, who produced the films inside the museum. Together, they helped shape the storytelling that now fills the space.
“This is not just a presidential library,” Smith said. “It’s a center — a community center.”
Smith hasn’t had a one-on-one conversation with the Obamas, but she’s heard their message clearly in staff meetings and pep talks.
“They understand this is not about them,” she said. “It’s about the community that made them who they are.”
She sees the center as a love letter to the South Side of Chicago — and to any community that has felt underrepresented or underinvested in.
“It shows, ‘This is possible,’” she said. “You can continue to improve anything. It just takes working with the community.”
As for what she hopes visitors take away?
“I hope they feel inspired. Motivated. Rejuvenated,” Smith said.
As inspired as she is about the center, seeing it open after watching it grow from an idea to plans to reality still feels surreal.
“I still can’t put my head around it,” Smith said. “I truly can’t.”