The board voted to shut the performing arts center’s main building for renovations on the same day a federal judge barred another effort to restore President Trump’s name to the building.
The Kennedy Center’s board voted Tuesday to close the performing arts institution’s main building for renovations, shortly after a federal judge blocked another attempt to restore President Trump’s name to its facade. Trump chairs the board and has filled it largely with allies, although statutory and ex officio members also serve on it.
The closure applies to the main building rather than the Kennedy Center’s entire operation. A draft resolution circulated before Tuesday’s meeting called for educational and artistic programming to continue at the REACH, the center’s expansion complex, while the National Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center Honors and Mark Twain Prize would move to other venues. The final resolution adopted Tuesday has not been publicly released in the sources reviewed for this article.
The vote followed a ruling earlier Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper, who barred the center from inscribing “renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump” on the main building or renaming its grounds the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.” Congress created the institution as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy, and Cooper concluded that federal law did not permit the board to install the proposed recognition without congressional authorization.
Trump then directly tied the renovation project to the unresolved naming dispute. In a social media post after the board vote, he said the building would close immediately for safety reasons but that renovation and reconstruction could not begin until the federal appeals court in Washington ruled on the board-approved name.
If that ruling went against the board and was not overturned by the Supreme Court, Trump wrote, “the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.” AP independently reported that Trump said the congressionally funded repair effort would proceed only if his name were added.
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