Kennedy Center
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, serving as a "living memorial" to John F. Kennedy. Located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., the center opened September 8, 1971, and hosts many genres of performance art, spanning theater, ballet, modern dance, classical music, jazz, pop, psychedelic, and folk music. The Kennedy Center is the official residence of the National Symphony Orchestra. It was also the official residence of the Washington National Opera until January 2026.
Authorized by the National Cultural Center Act of 1958, which requires that its programming be sustained through private funds, the center represents a public–private partnership. Its activities include educational and outreach initiatives, almost entirely funded through ticket sales and gifts from individuals, corporations, and private foundations. The center receives annual federal funding to cover building maintenance and operations.
The original building, designed by, is administered as a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution. An extension to the Durell Stone Building was designed by Steven Holl and opened in 2019.
In 1968, George London became the Kennedy Center's first executive director. In 1991, Lawrence Wilker assumed the newly created position of president. In 2014, Deborah Rutter became its third president and the first woman to hold that post.
In 2025, President Donald Trump dismissed the Kennedy Center's board of trustees and appointed new members who then elected him chairman. In December 2025, the board voted to add Trump's name to the center, although Congress—which has statutory authority over the venue's name—established it as the "John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts".
History
The idea for a national cultural center dates to 1933 when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt discussed ideas for the Emergency Relief and Civil Works Administration to create employment for unemployed actors during the Great Depression. Congress held hearings in 1935 on plans to establish a Cabinet level Department of Science, Art and Literature, and to build a monumental theater and arts building on Capitol Hill near the Supreme Court building. A 1938 Congressional resolution called for the construction of a "public building which shall be known as the National Cultural Center" near Judiciary Square, but this never materialized.The idea for a national theater resurfaced in 1950, when U.S. representative Arthur George Klein of New York introduced a bill to authorize funds to plan and build a cultural center. The bill included provisions that the center would prohibit any discrimination of cast or audience. In 1955, the Stanford Research Institute was commissioned to select a site and provide design suggestions for the center. From 1955 to 1958, Congress debated the idea amid much controversy. A bill was finally passed in Congress in the summer of 1958, and on September 4, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Cultural Center Act into law, which provided momentum for the project.
This was the first time that the federal government helped finance a structure dedicated to the performing arts. The legislation required a portion of the costs, estimated at $10–25 million, to be raised within five years of the bill's passage. Edward Durell Stone was selected as architect for the project in June 1959. He presented preliminary designs to the President's Music Committee in October 1959, along with estimated costs of $50 million, double the original estimates of $25–30 million. By November 1959, estimated costs had escalated to $61 million. Despite this, Stone's design was well received in editorials in The Washington Post, Washington Star, and quickly approved by the United States Commission of Fine Arts, National Capital Planning Commission, and the National Park Service.
Fundraising
The National Cultural Center Board of Trustees, a group President Eisenhower established on January 29, 1959, led fundraising. Fundraising efforts were not successful, with only $13,425 raised in the first three years. President John F. Kennedy was interested in bringing culture to the nation's capital, and provided leadership and support for the project. In 1961, Kennedy asked Roger L. Stevens to help develop the National Cultural Center, and serve as chairman of the board of trustees. Stevens recruited First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy as the center's honorary chairman, and former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower as co-chairman. In January 1961, Jarold A. Kieffer became the first executive director of the National Cultural Center, overseeing numerous fundraising efforts and assisting with the architectural plan.At the time of the assassination of President Kennedy, the National Cultural Center had only raised $13 million. Its board then re-envisioned the project as a "living memorial” to him, and Congress renamed it the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1964.
The total cost of construction was $70 million. Congress allocated $43 million for construction costs, including $23 million as an outright grant and the other $20 million in bonds. Donations also comprised a significant portion of funding, including $5 million from the Ford Foundation, and approximately $500,000 from the Kennedy family. Other major donors included J. Willard Marriott, Marjorie Merriweather Post, John D. Rockefeller III, and Robert W. Woodruff, as well as many corporate donors. Foreign countries provided gifts to the Kennedy Center, including a gift of 3,700 tons of Carrara marble from Italy from the Italian government, which was used in the building's construction.
Construction
President Lyndon B. Johnson dug the ceremonial first shovel of earth at the groundbreaking for the Kennedy Center December 2, 1964. However, debate continued for another year over the Foggy Bottom site, with some advocating for another location on Pennsylvania Avenue. Excavation of the site got underway on December 11, 1965, and the site was cleared by January 1967.The first performance was September 5, 1971, with 2,200 members of the general public in attendance to see a premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass in the Opera House, while the center's official opening took place September 8, 1971, with a formal gala and premiere performance of the Bernstein Mass. The Concert Hall was inaugurated September 9, 1971, with a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Doráti. Alberto Ginastera's opera, Beatrix Cenci premiered at the Kennedy Center Opera House September 10, 1971. The Eisenhower Theater was inaugurated October 18, 1971, with a performance of A Doll's House starring Claire Bloom.
Renovations and expansion
On June 16, 1971, Congress authorized appropriations for one year to the board of trustees for operating and maintenance expenses. In the following years, the appropriations were provided to the National Park Service for operations, maintenance, security, safety, and other functions not directly related to the performing arts activities. The National Park Service and the Kennedy Center signed a cooperative agreement requiring each party to pay a portion of the operating and maintenance costs based on what proportion of time the building was to be used for performing arts functions. The agreement did not specify who was responsible for long-term capital improvement projects at the Kennedy Center, and it provided only periodic funding from Congress for one-time projects.1990–2008
In fiscal years 1991 and 1992, Congress recommended that $27.7 million be allocated for capital improvement projects at the center, including $12 million for structural repairs to the garage and $15.7 million for structural and mechanical repairs, as well as projects for improving handicapped access. In 1994, Congress gave full responsibility to the Kennedy Center for capital improvement projects and facility management. From 1995 to 2005, over $200 million of federal funds were allocated to the Kennedy Center for long-term capital projects, repairs, and to bring the center into compliance with modern fire safety and accessibility codes. Improvements included renovation of the Concert Hall, Opera House, plaza-level public spaces, and a new fire alarm system. The renovations projects were completed 13 to 50 percent over budget, due to modifications of plans during the renovations resulting in overtime and other penalties. Renovations to the Eisenhower Theater were completed in 2008.2013–2024
Beginning in 2013, the center commenced an expansion project on in the center's South Plaza. The expansion added classroom, rehearsal, and performance space and includes three pavilions, a reflecting pool, a tree grove, a sloping lawn to be used for outdoor performances, and a pedestrian bridge over Rock Creek Parkway. The architect is Steven Holl, with assistance from architectural firm BNIM. Edmund Hollander Landscape Architects is the landscape architect.Plans for the expansion project began after David M. Rubenstein donated $50 million to the center. A groundbreaking ceremony took place in December 2014. Originally estimated at $100 million, the project cost grew to $175 million, and design changes and a major D.C. sewer project significantly delayed construction. The expansion, entitled the REACH, opened on September 7, 2019, with an opening arts festival. The fundraising goal for the REACH expansion grew to $250 million as the project progressed, and the target was achieved just two days before opening. Since its opening, the REACH has received several design awards, such as The Architect's Newspaper's Best of the Year Award in the Cultural category and an Honor Award in the 2020 AIA New York Design Awards.
2025 changes and aftermath of Trump takeover
On February 10, 2025, Trump appointed Richard Grenell as interim executive director. Trump criticized the center's drag and LGBTQ programming, vowing to be the one who decides what is to be performed in the venue. He dismissed the appointed board members and appointed his own, who elected him as chair on February 12, 2025. The center soon canceled the national tour of the new children's musical Finn, with a Kennedy Center spokesperson calling it "a purely financial decision". The public criticized the move as an attack on free speech and accessibility to the performing arts. Celebrities who subsequently disassociated themselves from the Kennedy Center have included Rhiannon Giddens, Issa Rae, Renée Fleming, Shonda Rhimes, and Ben Folds. The musical Hamilton, play Eureka Day, and various other shows and artists soon canceled performances at the center.In April 2025, guitarist and composer Yasmin Williams emailed Grenell to express her concern about DEI rollbacks and other changes made by Trump. She wrote, "These events have caused a major negative reaction in my musical community to playing at the Kennedy Center, with lots of individuals I know ultimately canceling their shows there". In his reply, Grenell stated, "Every single person who cancelled a show did so because they couldn't be in the presence of Republicans," and "I cut the DEI bullshit because we can't afford to pay people for fringe and niche programming that the public won't support".
In September 2025, Grenell's office reserved seats for a group of Log Cabin Republicans who organized a disruption of Williams's performance at the center.
Cast members withdrew from a June performance of Les Misérables at the center that Trump planned to attend; Grenell called them "vapid and intolerant artists". In June 2025, Trump and his wife Melania attended both the opening night of the Center's performance of Les Misérables that month and a fundraiser which was later held in the building to support the center. In May 2025, Washington Performing Arts announced that it was moving its 2025–26 season events to other venues.
In July, Republicans on the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies amended the 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies spending bill to include a clause that would rename the Kennedy Center Opera House to "Melania Trump Opera House". The amendment requires approval by the entire U.S. House of Representatives.
In November, a letter from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse accused the Kennedy Center of having become "a swamp for cronyism and self-dealing" under Grenell, citing contracts awarded to associates, rental-fee discounts for political allies, and luxury spending allegedly unrelated to fundraising. Grenell rejected the claims as "partisan attacks and false accusations," while asserting that he achieved a balanced budget, cut development staff from 94 to 16, and implemented a new policy requiring events to be revenue-neutral. Whitehouse continued an investigation of the Kennedy Center, launched in November by the Senate environment and public works committee.
Trump hosted the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony on December 7, 2025, the first time a U.S. president has hosted the event, although many have attended. The New York Times described it as Trump "putting his cultural takeover of Washington in sharp relief".
On January 9, 2026, the Washington National Opera announced it would leave the center; artistic director Francesca Zambello said box office revenue had collapsed and donor confidence had been "shattered" since Trump's takeover. Later that month, composer Philip Glass announced he was withdrawing the scheduled world premiere of his Symphony No. 15, "Lincoln", from the venue.