A Washington-area family that has handmade the Kennedy Center honorees’ signature rainbow-and-gold medallions for nearly five decades has reportedly been cut loose, the latest change in President Donald Trump’s ongoing reshaping of the nation’s flagship public arts institution.
James and Mila Baturin have been making the medals, which were designed by New York artist Ivan Chermayeff, since the first Kennedy Center Honors ceremony was held in 1978.
Since then, the center’s distinctive awards pieces, featuring three gold-plated medallions on a rainbow ribbon necklace, have largely been assembled by hand on the family’s kitchen countertop in Bethesda, Maryland.
However, they learned earlier this month that the Kennedy Center would no longer be working with them, as the arts center reportedly has contacted jeweler Tiffany & Co. about designing a new medal.
“As the Kennedy Center looks toward the future and embarks on a new chapter, we will be transitioning to a new partnership for the creation of the Honors medallions,” reads a letter, dated Aug. 6, seen by The Washington Post.
“We suspected something would happen as soon as the president decided he was going to take over the Kennedy Center,” Baturin told the paper.
The Independent has contacted the Kennedy Center and Tiffany for comment.
President Trump announced the latest crop of Kennedy Center honorees earlier this week, naming ‘70s rock band KISS, country legend George Strait, disco singer Gloria Gaynor, actor Sylvester Stallone, and British actor Michael Crawford.
They will be celebrated at the Kennedy Center Honors award ceremony in December, hosted by none other than Donald Trump.
In February, Trump bucked decades of bipartisanship at the public-private arts institution and pushed out presidentially appointed trustees from the Biden era.
The new board then took the unusual step of voting Trump as its chair.
Since the takeover, Trump has vowed to eliminate “woke” content from the Kennedy Center, and has been met with some boos and boycotts from audience members and performers.
The president’s Republican allies, meanwhile, have proposed a bill that would rename the Kennedy Center the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts.
Announcing the honorees this week, the president said he was personally involved in the selection and vetoed “a couple of wokesters” proposed by the Kennedy Center board.
Staff were reportedly caught off guard by the decision, and Kennedy Center Honors executive produce Matthew Winer announced his resignation this week.
The Kennedy Center isn’t the only major Washington public institution getting a Trump makeover.
The White House is reportedly planning a sweeping review of the Smithsonian Institution, home to many of the nation’s premier historical and cultural museums, to ensure everything from exhibits to operations are in line with the president’s interpretation of history ahead of upcoming celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S.
