Ex-Kennedy Center staffer alleges chaos and cronyism under Trump leadership

Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: Unless the courts intervene, the Kennedy Center for the performing arts will shut down this July for two years as part of a roughly $250 million renovation.

In the lead-up, there’s been a wave of layoffs and a controversial rebranding under President Trump’s allies. But the questions are mounting. Is a full shutdown really necessary? Were artists critical of Trump pushed aside? And did the center’s finances deteriorate after new leadership took over?

Now Josef Palermo, an artist and arts organizer who served for the past 10 months as the center’s first curator of visual arts, is speaking out. He was among those laid off and has written a firsthand account in “The Atlantic” titled “What I Saw Inside the Kennedy Center.”

And he joins us now.

Thank you for being here.

Josef Palermo, Former Visual Arts Curator, Kennedy Center: Thank you for having me.

Geoff Bennett: So, in your piece, you noted that President Donald Trump promised the best is yet to come for the Kennedy Center. But you write that instead you saw cronyism, incompetence, and a series of bizarre moves that would lead to the Kennedy Center going dark.

What did that actually look like in practice?

Josef Palermo: Yes, I mean, the bizarre moves that I was referring to are largely centered around fund-raising and the tactics that were used to fund-raise.

And a lot of that seemed to be positioning the proximity of the president and his chairmanship of the Kennedy Center and essentially selling access to that through things like the preview event of “Les Miserables.” There was an evening last summer where it was reported that tickets were going for $2 million to sit near the president in his presidential box and attend a VIP reception.

I was also made aware of six-figure tickets in the orchestra level just because it was in the same room as the president for that performance. And I just recalled thinking that this was not how we do things in the nonprofit arts sector.

And it’s true that — and I cite this in my piece in “The Atlantic” — a colleague of mine actually said, we are grafting political management strategies onto a nonpolitical organization. There were also very questionable things happening with respect to the lounges, these lounges that were established as gifts by different countries.

And in terms of the incompetence, I really just mean that to speak to the leadership that came in with no arts management experience and didn’t really seem to care about having any arts management experience or motivation to do anything with the Kennedy Center other than show up on a red carpet and take pictures.

Geoff Bennett: You oversaw the center’s collection of art, and you say that priceless works were taken down during the renovation. What exactly was removed and do you know where it ended up?

Josef Palermo: Right.

So I had been tasked by Grenell himself…

Geoff Bennett: Ric Grenell.

Josef Palermo: Ric Grenell — to oversee, in his words, getting rid of the artworks in the Kennedy Center ahead of the renovations. This was a directive that he gave me in his office shortly after Donald Trump made his TRUTH Social post about the closure.

I was told that we, the Kennedy Center, wanted new art to replace the outgoing art for the reopening. And so what I was tasked with was contacting donors, and, in some cases, that’s foreign nations that made donations to the American people by way of the Kennedy Center, and asked them to remove their work or in some cases paid to remove it if it was a statue that was installed outside that had to be dug up.

Without my knowledge, the African Room, which is again one of these lounges, that was something like 30, 32 African nations came together at the time the Kennedy Center opened to gift this lounge. And inside that room were beautiful handmade tapestries from different tribes throughout the continent of Africa.

There was a sculpture from Ghana that represented the collective Africans’ grief at the assassination of President Kennedy. And there were ornate hand-carved wooden doors carved from 700-year-old wood that contained scenes of Yoruban village life. That room is now completely gutted and emptied. I was not told where those items went.

Geoff Bennett: The Kennedy Center told us in a statement in response to our question about this, they said: “There are currently no planned changes to art. Our archivist is working to properly catalog the art. We are working with conservators to inventory the artwork as we prepare for the closure and construction period.

“To preserve art during construction, some items may be covered, stored, or temporarily moved to ensure safekeeping.”

How does that strike you?

Josef Palermo: That’s correct. The archivist started about a week or two before I was laid off on March 26.

And I just hope that the Kennedy Center — saying that you’re moving things for safekeeping is great, but I hope that it also means that those items will be returned.

Geoff Bennett: So the official reason for this two-year closure, starting in July, is renovation. Based on what you saw, do you believe that explanation?

Josef Palermo: I do not.

As far back as August, I had been made aware of rumors inside the Kennedy Center that the CFO had been proposing closing the center at the end of September.

Geoff Bennett: Because they were losing money?

Josef Palermo: That was what I was told, and that they were planning to use the cover of the renovations as a way to basically cease operations to stop the bleed of finances.

And I do believe that’s attributed to the fact that Ric Grenell did not raise the money that he claimed he did. And many public statements he made, that figure of $130 million, I believe that that’s also what he told the president. And I believe that the president found out that we didn’t have that money, and that’s why Ric Grenell is no longer the head of the Kennedy Center and why we are now, in fact, closing.

Geoff Bennett: In the piece you wrote for “The Atlantic,” much of your criticism focuses on Ric Grenell, the former leader of the center.

As an employee, though, as I understand it, you praised his leadership, but now you’re giving a very different assessment.

Josef Palermo: I mean, Ric was my boss. And I wanted to maintain a professional working relationship and environment. I was not the only one, even among his own hires, who expressed criticism behind closed doors of his leadership and lack thereof.

But, obviously, I’m not going to go up to him and tell him these things.

Geoff Bennett: The Kennedy Center has always had a political dimension. It is a federal institution. Some would argue that every administration leaves its imprint on the Kennedy Center and other similar institutions.

Why does this moment rise to the level of desecration, as you put it in the piece?

Josef Palermo: I firmly believe that our public arts institutions should never be politicized. I think that the Kennedy Center belongs to the American people. It’s how we express our national cultural identity. It’s how we share that with the world.

And I’m coming forward as a whistle-blower because I’m calling on Congress to enact some kind of a firewall to prevent this from ever happening again. And I believe that that should be a bipartisan effort.

Geoff Bennett: The administration will say that you are a disgruntled former employee with a motive.

Josef Palermo: Well, I think the motive is, yes, I’m trying to stop their desecration of the Kennedy Center by any means necessary. And I find that to be bringing the truth forward.

Geoff Bennett: Josef Palermo, thank you for sharing your insights and for joining us today.

Josef Palermo: Thank you.