Kennedy Center to Shut Down and Implement Operational Changes
A former staffer at the Kennedy Center detailed experiences amid the institution's takeover by the administration and an announced two-year shutdown. The account highlights staff layoffs, artwork management issues, and shifts in fundraising and programming. These changes reflect broader efforts to align the cultural center with political priorities.
jurist.orgTakeover and Shutdown The Kennedy Center was taken over in early 2025, followed by an announcement in February to shut down the nation's cultural center for two years.
This decision came amid artist cancellations, shrinking audiences, and staff changes. A former staffer described scrambling to handle artwork responsibilities after receiving a layoff notice on March 26. From the moment the staffer received a calendar invitation for a meeting with human resources, they knew they had to scramble.
Shortly after the shutdown announcement, the center’s president told the staffer to “get rid of everything” in the permanent collection. Although the staffer had slow-walked this demand for several weeks by pretending to wait on another colleague for updates, they now had only two hours to tie up loose ends.
The staffer hurriedly emailed the families of deceased figures associated with busts and installations, such as a bust outside the Opera House and a wood-carved wall depicting instruments mentioned in the Jewish Bible in the historic Israeli Lounge.
They had been anxious about the coming closure, and the staffer told them they would no longer be able to give them updates about the artworks. For months, colleagues and the staffer had been hearing chatter about a shutdown, but they suspected it wasn’t just because of problems with the physical structure (which certainly had issues but could have been upgraded piecemeal, without needing to close the entire complex), but also because a year of tumult had left the organization barely able to function artistically and financially.
Experiences and Projects Prior to the shutdown announcement, the staffer pitched a public art project for the semiquincentennial, involving ephemeral happenings on the National Mall dedicated to virtues.
Like much of the philanthropic world after the 2024 election, the private foundation that was sponsoring the project had reassessed its priorities and withdrawn its funding. One of the president’s deputies reached out to the staffer. The staffer was wary at first.
