The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
In Wednesday’s (2/12) Washington Post, Travis M. Andrews, Manuel Roig-Franzia, Janay Kingsberry, and Matt Viser write, “The Kennedy Center board of trustees voted Wednesday afternoon to install President Donald Trump as chairman of the board, cementing the plan Trump announced Friday to overhaul the storied arts institution with him at its helm. It also voted to terminate Deborah Rutter as president and made former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell interim president … The refashioned board of trustees is made up entirely of Trump appointees, many of whom were appointed after he terminated all of former president Joe Biden’s appointees…. Meanwhile, musician Ben Folds and opera singer Renée Fleming said they were stepping down as artistic advisers with the center, as did the treasurer of its board of trustees, TV producer Shonda Rhimes … Folds said on Instagram that he would leave his role with the National Symphony Orchestra…. This marks the first time a president has removed his predecessor’s board members at the Kennedy Center and installed himself as chair…. The Kennedy Center … is funded by a mixture of government-appropriated funding, private donation and ticket sales revenue. Its operating budget in 2024 was $268 million…. Of that … $45 million [comes] from federal appropriations [for] operations and maintenance, not arts programming.” Prior to being named president of the Kennedy Center in 2014, Rutter held top leadership positions at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
