The Kennedy Center’s management isn’t making a commitment to scheduling new shows or building up its staff even as the performing arts venue considers options short of a full two-year closure that a federal judge blocked last month.
In a court filing Friday, Kennedy Center lawyers said the institution plans to “maintain an operational model” after the July 5 date when it was initially scheduled to shutter for renovations. Under that status, the Kennedy Center’s public spaces will still be accessible but the stages may largely be silent.
“The Court’s order did not affirmatively require the Board to reschedule programming that had previously been cancelled or to seek new programming,” the lawyers wrote in the filing.
The Kennedy Center has been forced to reassess its plans after a May ruling from U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper upended many notable moves imposed by a board dominated by President Donald Trump’s allies. Cooper said Trump’s name was illegally added to the building and ordered it taken down. He blocked the closure and gave the institution’s leadership — along with Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio board member who filed the lawsuit — until Friday to provide a status update.
The venue said its management would present the board with several renovation options to consider for a vote. The options would include a complete closure or a partial closure that would allow “some continued public access and limited programming in spaces unaffected” by the work. A third option would “consider a highly limited series of phased closures to address only the Center’s most serious infrastructure needs while scheduling and maintaining a full slate of programming.”
Kennedy Center lawyers said the recommendations have not been finalized and a vote would happen in mid-July.
Beatty’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued the Kennedy Center hasn’t fully complied with Cooper’s order. While Trump’s name has been removed from the building, they took issue with a tarp that was put in place to cover the areas where the letters had been installed. There appears to be no immediate effort to remove the tarp.
They also argued that without making an effort to return to some form of programming, the Kennedy Center would effectively be closing the institution despite Cooper’s ruling.
“Having gutted staff and programming, Defendants believe they can sit back and allow their pre-planned shutdown to commence,” Beatty’s lawyers wrote in the filing.
