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In just one week, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington has been completely transformed. President Trump purged the center’s board of all Biden appointees and installed himself as chairman, ousting the financier David M. Rubenstein, the center’s largest donor. The new board fired Deborah F. Rutter, the center’s president for more than a decade. At least three other top staff members were dismissed.
Performers have dropped out in protest amid fears that Mr. Trump’s call to rid the center of “woke” influences, drag shows and “anti-American propaganda” will result in a reshaping of programming too narrowly aligned with the president’s own tastes.
This concern — that the center’s tradition of pluralism, free expression and classical art forms is in jeopardy — has dominated conversation about its future. But just as relevant, experts say, are questions about its financial stability.
Though the abrupt takeover by the new administration might suggest the center is an arts adjunct of the federal government, it is actually a semi-independent nonprofit. It operates under the Smithsonian Institution as a public-private partnership, and only a small portion of its $268 million budget — about $43 million, or 16 percent — comes from the federal government. That subsidy is not spent on programming but is earmarked for operations, maintenance and repairs of the property, which is federally owned.
The Kennedy Center is meant to be a beacon for the arts across the country. I just hope that it can be sustained.
Fund-raising had been robust under Ms. Rutter and Mr. Rubenstein, the ousted chairman. The center took in nearly $141 million in contributions and grants in the fiscal year ending in September 2023, the most recent year for which the institution’s tax records are available. That year, the center began a fund-raising effort to bolster its endowment.
Mr. Trump is expected to honor his gifts to date. He has given the center well over $1 million over the years and helped raise considerably more, making his largesse potentially difficult to replace.
The center is now a division of the White House. This might make donors think twice about contributing to the federal government.
You are not going to have a problem fund-raising, because people will give money based on the fact that he may be asking them for it. As we’ve seen, he is a very successful fund-raiser.
Over its 54-year history, the Kennedy Center’s biggest donors have been both Republicans and Democrats. The billionaire investor Stephen A. Schwarzman, a supporter of Mr. Trump, gives at least $1 million annually. So does the energy magnate Roger Sant, who is married to Representative Doris Matsui of California, a Democrat.
Major donors were reluctant to discuss their sponsorship plans going forward.
A White House spokesman declined to discuss specifics of whether the Kennedy Center’s spending was a matter for review. But Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on Tuesday that “the Kennedy Center learned the hard way that if you go woke, you will go broke,” an apparent reference to the fact that the center ran a $1 million deficit last year.
There have also been protest cancellations by performers, though not yet on a scale that would suggest a significant financial impact. The actress Issa Rae, who was set to appear next month at the Kennedy Center for “An Evening With Issa Rae,” cancelled the engagement because of what she described as “an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums.”
On Sunday, the Alfred Street Baptist Church, a prominent Black church in Virginia, said it was canceling a planned Christmas concert at the center because its new leaders stood in opposition to the “longstanding tradition of honoring artistic expression across all backgrounds.”
Mr. Trump’s supporters, however, say the administration will have no trouble finding entertainers eager to perform at the center who will draw big crowds. Calling into a meeting of the new Kennedy Center board, Mr. Trump said last week of future programming: “We’re going to make it hot.”
Some conservative groups have suggested in recent years that the federal government should stop providing aid to the center, but Mr. Trump has not weighed in on whether to continue to provide funding at the same level. The Kennedy Center did not respond to a request for comment about how Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist who replaced Ms. Rutter, might approach the funding issue.
Mr. Grenell raised concerns about the center’s finances last week, detailing a meeting with the center’s chief financial officer in which, he wrote, she acknowledged that the center had “ZERO cash on hand.”
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