Kennedy Center faces a crossroads as it's pulled into partisan politics

Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., is one of the nation’s premier performing art centers, holding some 2,000 events for some two million arts goers each year.

It’s an unusual public-private partnership, with most funding raised privately, but some coming from the federal government. And it’s traditionally been a bipartisan institution, with presidents adding their choices for members of the Kennedy Center board. Now it’s at a crossroads.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown reports from the Kennedy Center for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Jeffrey Brown: A spectacular sky painting over the Kennedy Center by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang for the opening of the Earth to Space Festival, a three-week event exploring the intersection of arts, science and technology.

There were installations such as this 22-foot space man by artist Brendan Murphy.

Brendan Murphy, Artist: It’s about embracing the unknown, problem-solving.

Jeffrey Brown: And a wall of quilt blocks conceived by an actual astronaut, Karen Nyberg, the first to quilt while in space.

Karen Nyberg, Former NASA Astronaut: Usually, on Earth, I sew with a machine, so the hand-sewing part was a little bit of a .

Alicia Adams, Vice President for International Programming, Kennedy Center: Artists have always been piqued by nature.

Jeffrey Brown: As vice president for international programming, Alicia Adams has put on many of these festivals.

Alicia Adams: I think we are unique, and I think we are the only performing arts center in America that can do work that is this big.

Jeffrey Brown: But a week earlier, as captured in news reports, there were jokes and jabs during one of the Kennedy Center’s signature annual events, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, given this year to Conan O’Brien.

Stephen Colbert, Host, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”: Today, they announced two board members, Bashar al-Assad and Skeletor.

Donald Trump, President of the United States: We’re going to fix it, make it beautiful.

Jeffrey Brown: It’s been a stunning two months that have rocked the institution and the wider arts world, as President Trump purged the center’s traditionally bipartisan board of directors of its Biden era appointees, named new members, including country music singer Lee Greenwood, FOX News hosts Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham, and replaced chairman David Rubenstein, a financier and philanthropist, with himself, the first time a president has taken that role in the center’s 54-year history.

Also out, Deborah Rutter, a respected arts administrator who led the center for more than a decade. She spoke on NPR just days after her firing.

Deborah Rutter, Former President, The Kennedy Center: How will we be able to sustain what we have done to really throw open the doors and make sure that the Kennedy Center is not just welcoming everybody, but seeing themselves and hearing their stories on our stages?

Jeffrey Brown: Taking her place as interim president, Richard Grenell, a diplomat and Trump loyalist who served in the first Trump administration. Grenell did not respond to requests for a “News Hour” interview.

Paolo Zampolli, Member, Kennedy Center Board of Trustees: Instead of complaining, just sit and wait, and you will be impressed to say, thank you, Mr. President.

Jeffrey Brown: But we did talk with Paolo Zampolli, an Italian-born longtime friend of the president appointed by him to the Kennedy Center board in 2020.

Zampolli, a businessman, says he wants to make the Kennedy Center a more exciting destination, an American jewel, like La Scala in his native Milan, adding such features as a ferry landing on the Potomac and an academy of arts on nearby Roosevelt Island. He supports the overhaul of the board.

Paolo Zampolli: They were very hostile with the Trumps and the MAGA and all his appointees. So, those people, we had no way possible to work together. That’s why this is the president who made this decision, and I think it’s very wise. We make the center great again.

Jeffrey Brown: President Trump has referred critically to what he calls woke programming, and said: “We didn’t like what they were showing.”

On his TRUTH Social, he wrote: “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured drag shows specifically targeting our youth. This will stop.”

The center has presented drag events, a tiny percentage of its annual programming. In fact, the Kennedy Center, with constituent organizations, including the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera, has regularly presented the world’s leading artists for decades.

Its Millennium Stage offers free performances daily by local, national and international artists. In 2019, it expanded its campus and offerings with the opening of The REACH, a series of performance and rehearsal spaces. But now some prominent artists are staying away.

Immediately following President Trump’s moves, Kennedy Center artistic advisers Renee Fleming and Ben Folds resigned from their positions. TV producer Shonda Rhimes, appointed by President Obama, abruptly left her position as treasurer. Performers, including actress-comedian Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens, canceled upcoming shows.

And the hit production “Hamilton,” which was previously played at the Kennedy Center, announced it would not return as planned in 2026. “Hamilton” producer Jeffrey Seller posted: “The recent purge flies in the face of everything this national center represents.”

At his recent trip to the center, President Trump responded to the “Hamilton” announcement.

Donald Trump: I never liked “Hamilton” very much, and I never liked it, but we are going to have some really good shows.

Jeffrey Brown: In Philadelphia recently, we met Adam Weiner, front man for the rock band Low Cut Connie, who canceled his participation in a Kennedy Center series called Social Impact.

Adam Weiner, Musician: I would be sending a message to my fans that, A, I am some extension of his regime or, worse, that I don’t care.

Jeffrey Brown: The new leadership has now dismantled the center’s Social Impact team with its stated effort to advance justice and equity, laying off its director and others.

For his part, Paolo Zampolli call fears that President Trump will overhaul programming:

Paolo Zampolli: Confusion and fake news. The president is asking everybody what they want, and it is that the people who are making jokes, it’s going to be like a propaganda of the president, the music the president loves. No, no, no, no.

Philip Kennicott, The Washington Post: Things that were unthinkable a month ago, two weeks ago, a year ago, are happening faster in many ways than we can keep track of them.

Jeffrey Brown: But many are very worried, including Philip Kennicott, Pulitzer Prize-winning art and architecture critic for The Washington Post. He points to the recent announcement that producers of an opera titled “Fellow Travelers,” featuring two gay protagonists, have withdrawn from the 2026 schedule, citing what they called the takeover of the Kennedy Center and policies that contradict the values of their opera.

Philip Kennicott: Censorship isn’t simply saying, no, you may not come here, no, you may not say that. It’s about not inviting people to contribute. It’s about people self-censoring.

Jeffrey Brown: Now you’re using a big word here, censorship.

Philip Kennicott: I do think it is already happening. The Kennedy Center has created an environment, the current leadership, in which the producers of “Hamilton” feel they don’t want to be associated with that. I think the example set at the Kennedy Center will have a chilling effect on other organizations all across the country.

Jeffrey Brown: One major test will be the Kennedy Center Honors, the institution’s most prestigious annual event, which since 1978 has included a who’s-who of artistic stars from all walks of American and international culture.

Presidents traditionally attend, but, in his first term, Donald Trump did not. In an audio recording at his recent board meeting leaked to The New York Times and Washington Post, he floated names including Paul Anka, Sylvester Stallone, Johnny Mathis, and Andrea Bocelli, and though the honors have not been given posthumously and have always been limited to artistic fields, Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth.

The president also said he himself might serve as host of the honors.

(Booing)

Jeffrey Brown: At a recent concert by the National Symphony, some booed when Vice President J.D. Vance took his seat. And as shown in news reports, Conan O’Brien drew a standing ovation when he lauded Kennedy Center employees.

Conan O’Brien, Former Host, “Late Night With Conan O’Brien”: My eternal thanks for their selfless devotion to the arts.

(Cheering)

Jeffrey Brown: At the same time, though, the show does go on, including the big Earth to Space Festival, which in its three weeks will feature scores of performances.

Alicia Adams: I think of these festivals as being knowledge festivals, a place. It gives people an opportunity not to just have a great time and be entertained, but to also learn something. And that’s something that’s been very important to me. And I’m still here trying to do this work.

Jeffrey Brown: For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Jeffrey Brown at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.