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U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he will move to close Washington’s Kennedy Center performing arts venue for two years starting in July for construction, his latest proposal to upturn the storied venue since returning to the White House.
Trump’s announcement on social media Sunday night of a closure beginning July 4 follows a wave of cancellations since Trump ousted the previous leadership and added his name to the building. Trump made no mention in his post of the recent cancellations.
Trump announced his plan days after the premiere of Melania a documentary of the first lady was shown at the storied venue. The proposal, he said, is subject to approval by the board of the Kennedy Center, which has been stocked with his hand-picked allies. Trump himself chairs the center’s board of trustees.
“This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment,” Trump wrote in his post.
Neither Trump nor Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell, a Trump ally, have provided evidence to back up their claims about the building being in disrepair. Last October, Trump had pledged the centre would remain open during renovations.
“This will be a brief closure,” Grenell said in a social media post. “It desperately needs this renovation and temporarily closing the Center just makes sense — it will enable us to better invest our resources, think bigger and make the historic renovations more comprehensive. It also means we will be finished faster.”
The venue began life as a national cultural centre but Congress renamed it a “living memorial” to President John F. Kennedy in 1964, in the aftermath of the president’s death. Opened in 1971, it is a public showcase for the arts, including the National Symphony Orchestra.
‘Total disregard for Congress’
Leading performing arts groups have pulled out of appearances, most recently, composer Philip Glass, who announced his decision to withdraw his Symphony No. 15 Lincoln because he said the values of the center today are in “direct conflict” with the message of the piece.
Last month, the Washington National Opera announced that it will move performances away from the Kennedy Center in another high-profile departure following Trump’s takeover of the U.S. capital’s leading performing arts venue.
The head of artistic programming for the centre abruptly left his post last week, less than two weeks after being named to the job.
Singer-songwriter Kristy Lee joins Hanomansing Tonight to discuss her decision to cancel an upcoming performance at the Kennedy Center after a board appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump added his name to the building. She says American history is being treated like something you can ban, erase, rename or rebrand for somebody else’s ego.
A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Late last year, as Trump announced his plan to rename the building — erecting his name on the building’s main front ahead of Kennedy’s — he drew sharp opposition from members of Congress, as well as some Kennedy family members.
One lawmaker, Rep. Joyce Beatty, the Ohio Democrat and ex-officio trustee of the center’s board, sued in December, arguing that “only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center.”
On Sunday, Beatty said in a statement that once again Trump “has acted with total disregard for Congress,” which allocates funds to the centre.
She questioned what comes next for the artists and the building itself.
“Let’s be clear: remodeling the premises will not restore the Kennedy Center to what it was. A return to artistic independence will,” she said. “America’s artists are rejecting this attempted takeover, and the administration knows it.”
Since Trump returned to the White House, the Kennedy Center is one of many Washington landmarks he has sought to overhaul. He demolished the East Wing of the White House and launched a $400-million US ballroom project, is actively pursuing building an arch on the other side of the Arlington Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial and has plans for Washington Dulles International Airport.
