The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to temporarily shutter the institution’s main building at the request of President Donald Trump, who claims the performing arts center “is in a virtual state of collapse.”
The closure will allow for an extensive renovation that is expected to cost $250 million.
However, it’s unclear whether the renovation will happen. Just minutes after the board’s meeting Tuesday, Trump said the planned construction would not proceed unless he is allowed to add his name to the building.
The remarks were a response to a court ruling earlier in the day that blocked the board from affixing his name to the building without congressional approval.
Trending
“The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.”
During a closure, some Kennedy Center programing would probably be hosted at a nearby complex known as the REACH — which will also hold the memorial to President John F. Kennedy during the renovations — according to a draft resolution obtained by The Washington Post earlier this week.
The board had been considering 10 potential ways to recognize Trump on the building’s front facade, such as “Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled Tuesday that the board could not circumvent an earlier decision he handed down in May that blocked the addition of the president’s name on the building as well as an initial plan to close the center for renovations.
Later Tuesday, the Trump administration filed notice it was seeking to appeal Cooper’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The board now argues that new evidence has made the need for a two-year closure more apparent.
In its proposal this week, the board cited “additional water intrusion and deterioration of the Center’s physical plant caused a partial ceiling collapse in the Grand Foyer, releasing debris from a height of approximately 60 feet and endangering visitors and employees alike.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio board member who sued Trump over his plans for the center, criticized the board’s decision to shut down the building entirely rather than “undergo phased renovations, in which we both renovate and maintain some performances.”
Beatty’s attorneys, Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group, wrote that the president’s “unlawful renaming drove audiences and artists away,” and necessitated their lawsuit.
On Tuesday afternoon, Beatty filed official notice with the D.C. district court highlighting Trump’s post made on Truth Social regarding the renovations.
This story has been updated with an appeal by the Trump administration.
Author
Contributor
