The backlash against Trump’s take over of the Kennedy Center has been so harsh and unrelenting that it appears that the only solution is to shut it down for a two year makeover.
https://archive.ph/jq0v3
Trump Says Kennedy Center Will Close for 2-Year Reconstruction Project
The president’s announcement came after the center has been rocked by cancellations and boycotts by performers, contributors and audience members.
President Trump announced Sunday that he would shut down the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which has been battered by cancellations and boycotts, for two years this summer to transform what he called “a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center,” into “without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind.”
Mr. Trump’s announcement came after a major backlash by performers, contributors and audience members amounted to a significant setback to one of the key initiatives of his second term. Mr. Trump set out from the first weeks of returning to office to remake the center, founded as a tribute to John F. Kennedy after his assassination in 1963, in his image. He attached his name to the center, and has installed loyalists to run it, including Richard Grenell.
The reaction has been harsh and unrelenting. Last week, Philip Glass, the acclaimed American composer, said he was withdrawing Symphony No. 15, which had been commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra in tribute to Abraham Lincoln, that was to be performed there in June. A week earlier, the acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming canceled a performance there.
The Washington National Opera announced last month that it was cutting its ties to the center and the other classical music anchor there, the National Symphony Orchestra, has been playing to empty seats.
But Mr. Trump, in his social media post, made no mention of the cancellations or the empty seats. Instead, he presented it as his latest effort to rebuild part of Washington — in this case a performing arts center.
The president said that funding had been found for the project — but did not say how much it would cost or where the money was coming from. Last year, Mr. Trump secured $257 million from Congress to help with capital repairs on the building. He offered no details of what kind of reconstruction he had in mind, other than to say it would entail “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding.” He said he would shut it down this summer, on July 4, arguing that a dramatic step was necessary to safeguard one of Washington’s most treasured cultural institutions.
“In other words, if we don’t close, the quality of Construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of interruptions with Audiences from the many Events using the Facility, will be much longer,” he wrote on Truth Social. The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!”
