WASHINGTON: The board of the Kennedy Center voted on Tuesday (Sep 15) to shut down the iconic performing arts venue for up to two years for repairs, a US$257 million renovation project that President Donald Trump later threatened to block unless federal courts allow his name to be added to the building.
The decision by the board, which is chaired by Trump and composed of his allies, came less than two hours after a federal judge blocked the centre from adding Trump’s name to its facade for the second time in five months.
In a social media post, Trump said the renovation work would not start until an appeals court weighs in on the judge’s order.
“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the US Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Tuesday’s developments were the latest twists in the saga of the John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts since Trump regained the White House, named himself chairman of the centre’s board and announced plans to reshape its programming.
The centre, which is also a memorial to the assassinated Kennedy, opened in 1971 with the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s requiem mass for Kennedy.
Over the decades, it has been home to the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra and hosted such performers as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Wynton Marsalis. It also hosts the annual Kennedy Center Honors, recognising the lifetime of achievement of leading artists.
In response to Trump’s takeover, artists have cancelled performances in protest, and the opera and the symphony were forced to find other venues, while revenue cratered.
The board has warned the centre’s finances are so shaky that it may soon not be able to honour payroll obligations or maintenance contracts.
Trump’s campaign to remake the centre is part of his broader effort to leave his cultural and aesthetic mark on the US capital, including a large new ballroom to replace the White House East Wing he ordered demolished, a troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and a planned “triumphal arch” near the nation’s main cemetery honouring its war dead.
The centre’s board has said the venue is in dire need of immediate repairs.
Trump spoke to the board during Tuesday’s meeting, according to a statement from US Representative Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who sits on the board due to her position in Congress. Beatty has sued to prevent the centre from adding Trump’s name, arguing that only Congress has that authority.
“The unlawful renaming drove audiences and artists away. Now the board has voted to shut down yet again to hide the terrible mismanagement under its current leadership. We’ll see the Defendants in court,” said Rep Beatty’s counsel, Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group in a statement.
