What is the Kennedy Center and Why Does It Matter?
The Kennedy Center River Terrace - Photo by Emily Sexton
It’s official. As of Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump has installed himself as Chair of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, after a vote by the Kennedy Center board consisting almost entirely of individuals he appointed in defiance of more than 50 years of precedent.
Since President Trump first announced last Friday that he intended to remove members of the board and replace then-Chair David Rubenstein, there has been a lot of speculation about what it might mean for the performing arts world more broadly.
I’ve also found myself repeatedly explaining to folks what the Kennedy Center actually is and isn’t. So, with the caveat that legislation can change (or be completely disregarded), here’s a bit of an explainer.
The Kennedy Center is a federal entity, but probably not in the way that you think.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was created by Act of Congress as the United States’ national center for the performing arts and sole memorial to President Kennedy within the DC area. It was created as a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution, to operate independently, with its own board and funding.
So, yes, the Kennedy Center is a federal institution - the term often used is “trust instrumentality of the United States”, and per its legislation, 20 U.S.C. §76h, et sec, it does receive annual congressional appropriations which it uses exclusively for the maintenance and upkeep of the building and public areas as a living memorial to President Kennedy, “in a manner that is suitable to a national performing arts center that is operated as a Presidential memorial and in a manner consistent with other national Presidential memorials”.
The Kennedy Center is not permitted to use any portion of that appropriation for any artistic programming, marketing, non-building related administration, or the employees dedicated to those functions. This means that the vast majority of the Kennedy Center’s funding and employees are considered “trust” funds and employees as applicable, not federal. This is also why the Kennedy Center also functions as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization - so that it can raise the significant funds needed to support its artistic purpose.
Further, as a bureau of the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center shares legal precedents with the Smithsonian and National Gallery of Art, and so, per case law is not considered a federal agency for purposes of the Privacy Act and certain other federal laws. However, it is not governed by the Smithsonian Secretary and Board of Regents and does not share in the Smithsonian’s federal or private funding.
In short - the Kennedy Center building is federal. The Kennedy Center’s programs are privately funded.
Yes, the Kennedy Center gets federal funding, but it is very limited.
As noted above, the Kennedy Center is prohibited by its legislation from using the money appropriated to it by Congress for artistic programming or other non-facilities related services related thereto. This means that the $51 million appropriated in 2024 has to be used for a combination of maintenance and capital projects. In this respect, the Kennedy Center goes through the same appropriations process as any other federal entity asking for federal funds.
In FY 2022, the last year for which I could find a full IRS Form 990 for the Kennedy Center, the $47 million it was appropriated for building maintenance and upkeep made up less than 17% of the approximately $286.5 million in revenue the Kennedy Center reported. This revenue is made up principally of a combination of contributions and grants from corporations, private foundations, and individual donors, programing and related revenue.
Note that the Kennedy Center does receive some other federal funds which are available to nonprofit organizations more generally, such as grant money from the Department of Education to support its educational programs, which is applied for and subject to standard grant procedures.
Kennedy Center employees are (mostly) not federal employees.
The Kennedy Center does have a small number of federal employees in the traditional sense that most people think of them - individuals who are employed through the federal government, part of the General Services scale, and subject to (and who benefit from) all federal rules and protections. When I left the Center there were about 50 folks who fell into this category who worked exclusively on the federal functions of the Kennedy Center’s operations - maintenance, federal contracting, and federal HR.
The rest of the Kennedy Center’s employees - including the President of the Kennedy Center, all artistic and programming staff, virtually all administrative staff, the Education team, and the staffs of the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, are all “trust” employees paid out of that non-appropriated revenue.
That said, all Kennedy Center employees are considered to be government employees for certain purposes, notably, the Federal Tort Claims Act, which limits the ways that government entities can be sued for direct harms, and workers compensation.
How are the Kennedy Center Board and Chair (normally) appointed?
The Kennedy Center board is - by statute - made up of a combination of ex officio members, including the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Mayor of DC and 12 total members of Congress including the minority leaders of both the House and Senate, as well as 36 general trustees appointed by the President of the United States.
In practice, this has meant that there has typically been a bipartisan balance of members appointed by multiple presidents over time. Note that while the statute provides guidance on replacement of board members who resign, there is no specific mention of removal in the legislation and the question has to my knowledge never before been tested.
The Chair of the Kennedy Center is selected by a vote of the Board. Per the language of the statute, “The Chairperson and Secretary shall be well qualified by experience and training to perform the duties of their respective offices.”
Never in the Kennedy Center’s 54 year history has a President removed sitting members of the board for partisan reasons. Never has a sitting President appointed themselves to the board.
As a federal entity - of any sort - isn’t the Kennedy Center fair game for federal control?
The federalness of the Kennedy Center affects many aspects of its operation, but core to its values has always been the separation of the federal government and the art itself. The board is charged with “present[ing] classical and contemporary music, opera, drama, dance, and other performing arts from the United States and other countries” and with promoting educational and public outreach programs around the country.
As noted above, no federally appropriated funds go to supporting the artistic operations of the Kennedy Center and artistic decisions have been made without interference from from the federal government and in accordance with the expertise of those hired to make programming decisions.
How long until the Kennedy Center becomes the Trump Center?
Technically, renaming the Kennedy Center would require a total overhaul of the legislation I keep quoting. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but as a memorial to a slain president - one who was the uncle of the newly confirmed head of the Department of Health and Human Services - it seems unlikely that this is a next step or that Congress would have the appetite to make this sort of sweeping change effectively eliminating the principal federal memorial to JFK. But I’ve been wrong before.
The legislation also prohibits the designation of any “additional memorials” to individuals within the Kennedy Center building, although President Trump will have his name inscribed on the marble walls as the newest Chair and there could certainly be programming that is named for him.
So what does this all mean?
It seems abundantly clear that at least in the short term, President Trump intends to ensure his loyalists - including newly appointed interim Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell - take an unprecedented degree of control over Kennedy Center programming to ensure it is no longer “woke”. I suspect that the next weeks will bring changes in priorities and probably significant changes in staff. Just Wednesday, artistic partners Ben Folds and Renee Fleming resigned from their positions and Shonda Rhimes resigned as Treasurer of the Board. It seems likely that other members of the Kennedy Center artistic teams and staff generally will depart or be asked to leave in the coming days and weeks. I’m already seeing this trickle through my networks as folks put out feelers or leave outright.
I anticipate that some planned programming will change as well. New Kennedy Center leadership may cancel already scheduled events, for example, I would guess that marquee events planned as part of World Pride 2025 will be cancelled. Artists may decide that they do not want to perform at the Kennedy Center or participate in events like the Kennedy Center Honors. And certainly future programming will change - no more drag shows or extended John Oliver stand up runs or genre bending performances like Nas or Kendrick Lamar with the NSO, is my guess. The Kennedy Center has been at the forefront of expanding artistic horizons beyond its walls by livestreaming and archiving free performances on its Millennium Stage and other programming through the Digital Stage initiative.
The Kennedy Center programs thousands of performances each year, including hundreds of free performances. It brings in artists from around the nation and the world. For many of these artists who are not (yet) household names, performing at the Kennedy Center might be one of the marquee lines on their resume. The money that they make from performing at the Kennedy Center might fund other performances where they are not as well compensated or even paid at all. If performance contracts are cancelled, artists will be left with gaps in their schedules that may be difficult to fill in addition to lost income. From a legal perspective, this evokes the turmoil we experienced managing engagement terminations in Spring 2020 in terms of the potential effects on artists who either voluntarily cancel or have their agreements terminated, along with the potential fall on consequences of cancelled programming - hotel contracts, travel booking, etc.
More broadly, any significant changes in how the Kennedy Center operates could have significant reverberations for other arts organizations, particularly those organizations who participate in the Kennedy Center’s educational programs. Currently, the Kennedy Center provides significant educational programming, both onsite at the Kennedy Center, online, and locally throughout the country. Programs like Turnaround Arts, and other community based programs help bring the arts, and the benefits of arts education, to children around the country. Its Access/VSA programs are international models for making the arts accessible to all people and also provide funding for local organizations who are working to improve their arts accessibility.
The Kennedy Center has always taken its charge to be a cultural center for America seriously. It is often viewed as stodgy, but in the 16 years I worked there, it also took risks and tried to truly reflect its call to present the full dimension of arts and culture in the United States. In a sense, it has diversity and inclusion baked into its Congressionally charged mission.
John F. Kennedy said in 1963, "We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth." If the Center which bears his name becomes a mouthpiece for a single political party, it will lose its impact and its place in the conversation about art and culture, which would be an immeasurable loss for us all.
This post is meant as commentary only, not legal advice.