Kennedy Center faces artist cancellations, drop in ticket sales after Trump's name added

Transcript

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Amna Nawaz: First, a takeover of leadership, then a renaming as the Kennedy Center became the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and now canceled performances.

Amid all that, ratings for the televised Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by the president himself, showed a big drop in viewership, and overall ticket sales are reportedly way off. In short, the turmoil continues at one of the nation’s preeminent arts centers.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown begins our update. It’s part of our Art in Action series exploring the intersection of art and democracy and part of our Canvas coverage.

Jeffrey Brown: Chuck Redd on the vibraphone, he was scheduled to perform with his band at the Kennedy Center on Christmas Eve, but decided to cancel the concert.

Within days, others followed, including The Cookers, a jazz ensemble scheduled for New Year’s Eve show. In a statement, the group said they remain committed to music that — quote — “reaches across divisions, rather than deepening them.”

Also canceling a January performance, Alabama folk singer Kristy Lee, stating: “When American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename or rebrand for somebody else’s ego, I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night.”

And the New York dance company Doug Varone and Dancers canceled a planned April show. The moves followed the mid-December renaming of the Kennedy Center and after President Trump’s appointment of a new board and leadership last February, naming himself as chair.

At that time, prominent artists, including Renee Fleming and Ben Folds, resigned from their positions at the Kennedy Center. And others, including Rhiannon Giddens, canceled shows.

In response to the recent cancellation by Chuck Redd, Center president Richard Grenell threatened a $1 million lawsuit.

Earlier this week, I spoke with choreographer and dancer Doug Varone and asked about his decision to cancel.

Doug Varone: It wasn’t an easy decision, and it was, I felt, a long time coming. We watched all the changes that occurred when the Trump administration took over the Kennedy Center, the releasing of the bipartisan board, the firing of many employees, including the entire dance staff. Yet I still believed that bringing the art was important for us.

The Kennedy Center has always stood for excellence in the arts, was named after President Kennedy. And he believed that the arts were at the center of all of our culture, all of our nation. Renaming it Donald Trump Center, it seems to go completely against every principle and every mission that the center stands for. I couldn’t put myself or my dancers into that building right now.

Jeffrey Brown: But where is the balance for you in bringing your art to people, which is presumably what you do, what it’s all about…

Doug Varone: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Brown: … and then making this decision to not put your art before the people at the Kennedy…

Doug Varone: Well, you know, I — in the conversations that I have had over the last couple of months, I sort of have always believed that the art should be paramount.

It was the reason why we didn’t cancel a long time ago, that the power and the truth of the art was what I wanted to put on the Kennedy stage. And the audiences that would come to it would hopefully take that strength away.

But it is this act from this president that has pushed me off the cliff and has made it impossible for me to do that.

Jeffrey Brown: A statement we received from the Kennedy Center accuses you and others who have canceled of doing this for political differences and of failing to meet the basic duty of a public artist to perform for all people.

What’s your response to that?

Doug Varone: I think that he probably has not done this research on myself and my company.

We have been performing nationally and internationally for the last 40 years. Many of our international tours have been supported by the State Department under presidents both Democratic and Republican. I am honored as an artist to bring my work all over this country to red states, blue states, rural, urban areas, and to have that art be part of a dialogue of how we talk about our differences and share the way we live and think.

I have been dedicated to that for the past 40 years.

Jeffrey Brown: You will take a financial hit from this. What’s the impact on you and your dancers?

Doug Varone: We will be losing about $40,000 from this engagement. And that equals about three weeks of work for my dancers. So I will have to let them go in April, unless we can find some monetary form to replace that.

That’s not good. It’s not good allowing my dancers to go back on unemployment in these really tenuous economic times.

Jeffrey Brown: And what kind of response have you had from them, from others around the world, and from the other arts groups?

Doug Varone: Well, the dancers were part of this decision. Everyone supports it. We have had a tremendous outpouring of support from the dance community, from other artists from all around the world, actually, people I have never met, people who have never seen the dance company itself congratulating us on our integrity to pull out at this particular moment.

So I’m proud of the decision that we have made.

Jeffrey Brown: And have you heard from the Kennedy Center? And do you anticipate legal action from them?

Doug Varone: I do not anticipate legal action. The dance companies that were part of the presenting series this year all included a clause in our contracts that allowed us, at our discretion, if we felt that our reputation was being affected, to pull out without cause.

So that is in our contract. If they want to legally take us to task for that, I’m happy to have lawyers look at that.

Jeffrey Brown: All right, choreographer and dancer Doug Varone, thank you very much.

Doug Varone: Thank you.