Madeline Mooney
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the home of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera, was recently host to a rather different performance.[1] Its new self-appointed Chairman, President Trump, singing the praises of the Broadway musical Cats (the dancers had silk tights!), promising to select productions based on their relative lack of “wokeness” (even if it means breaking with the union Actor’s Equity), and wishing to expand the annual Honors ceremony, traditionally reserved for artists (and “radical left lunatics,” according to Trump), to entrepreneurs and politicians).[2] It is apparent that Trump wishes to depart from the Kennedy Center’s tradition of bipartisan support for the arts, a move which strikes at the heart of the institution.[3]
The Kennedy Center is officially a public-private partnership authorized by the National Culture Center Act, signed into law by President Eisenhower in 1958.[4] Originally known as the National Culture Center, it was renamed in 1964 to stand as a “living memorial” to President Kennedy, who had been very supportive of the Center throughout his presidency.[5] Its stated mission is to be “a leader for the arts across America and around the world, reaching and connecting with artists, inspiring and educating communities.”[6] Its Board of Trustees was originally to be comprised of various agency heads, six congresspeople, and fifteen U.S. citizens appointed by the president.[7] In 2025, the number of presidential appointees was increased to thirty-six.[8]
Although created by statute, the Center maintains a significant level of independence: it is funded mostly by private donations and ticket sales, with an annual appropriation for upkeep of the building.[9] While this funding structure might limit Congress’ ability to punish it directly for any failures to comply with the new administration’s social policy aims, it is easy to see how ticket sales might flounder under this new Board. Cats does not exactly have the same pull as Hamilton, the producer of which recently canceled a planned 2026 run in protest of the Trump administration.[10] As of March 6, fourteen other productions at the Center were canceled for nondescript reasons.[11] Children’s musical Finn, which tells the story of a young shark dealing with feelings of difference in a way which might be viewed as a metaphor for queer identity, was canceled by the Center for alleged financial reasons, but the creators are decrying the move as an act of censorship.[12]
The statute establishing the Center sets the Board’s duties broadly: among other responsibilities, they are to “present classical and contemporary music, opera, drama, dance, and other performing arts from the United States and other countries” and “develop[] and present[] original and innovative performing arts and educational programs […] designed specifically to foster an appreciation and understanding of the performing arts.”[13] The broadness of such a directive likely insulates the Board from any successful legal challenge to the Center’s programming schedule. Its semi-private status and the Supreme Court’s decision in National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, 524 U.S. 569 (1998), which allows for some level of content discretion in funding artistic endeavors, likely also provide protection from First Amendment challenges. Whatever changes to the Center’s ethos might arrive under this new leadership, the artistic community, as always, seems poised to resist.
[1]The Kennedy Center, https://www.kennedy-center.org/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADnuhU_OIE2FqlT53s4w9bsTBpW0L&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqIm_BhDnARIsAKBYcmsos5ln2r9tzp7i6NYNmiaz_hosZD3QXqb5U4Q7BqGSEYFWiJ2jleUaAkVHEALw_wcB (last visited Mar. 25, 2025).
[2]Javier C. Hernández, Elvis, ‘Cats’ and Babe Ruth: Chairman Trump Reimagines the Kennedy Center, N.Y. Times (Mar. 18, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/arts/music/trump-kennedy-center.html [https://web.archive.org/web/20250325205658/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/arts/music/trump-kennedy-center.html].
[3]Michael Scherer & Ashley Parker, Trump’s Conquest of the Kennedy Center is Accelerating, The Atlantic (Feb. 8, 2025) https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/trump-kennedy-center-board/681623/ [https://perma.cc/4CHH-6SKB] [https://web.archive.org/web/20250325210256/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/trump-kennedy-center-board/681623/] (mentioning the Center’s tradition of a “bi-partisan board of trustees that has supported the arts in a non-partisan fashion.”).
[4]History, The Kennedy Center, https://www.kennedy-center.org/our-story/history/ (last visited Mar. 25, 2025).
[5]Id.
[6]Mission, The Kennedy Center, https://www.kennedy-center.org/our-story/mission/ (last visited Mar. 25, 2025).
[7]National Cultural Center Act, Pub. L. No. 85-874, 72 Stat. 1698 (1958).
[8]20 U.S.C. § 76h.
[9]Our Story, The Kennedy Center, https://www.kennedy-center.org/our-story/ (last visited Mar. 25, 2025).
[10]Clarissa-Jan Lim, ‘Hamilton’ Run at Kennedy Center Canceled Over Trump Takeover, MSNBC (Mar. 6, 2025) https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/hamilton-cancels-kennedy-center-shows-trump-lin-manuel-miranda-rcna195126 [https://perma.cc/37FC-EE6F] [https://web.archive.org/web/20250326015533/https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/hamilton-cancels-kennedy-center-shows-trump-lin-manuel-miranda-rcna195126].
[11]@kencen, X (Mar. 6, 2025, 11:17 PM), https://x.com/kencen/status/1897864119518163241[https://perma.cc/VSB6-SYB6].
[12]Diep Tran, Kennedy Center Cancels Children's Musical Finn; Creators Say 'We Will Not Be Silenced', Playbill (Feb. 14, 2025) https://playbill.com/article/kennedy-center-cancels-childrens-musical-finn-creators-say-we-will-not-be-silenced [https://perma.cc/BM4F-PQCY] [https://web.archive.org/web/20250326012444/https://playbill.com/article/kennedy-center-cancels-childrens-musical-finn-creators-say-we-will-not-be-silenced].
[13]20 U.S.C. § 76j.