Kennedy Center’s Future Hangs in the Balance as Report Warns of Imminent Closure

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy. Leaders at the center, who were largely appointed by President Donald Trump, have argued that the only way to avoid “certain fiscal collapse” is by putting the President’s name on the building’s facade to ensure his fundraising efforts, according to a report by the Washington Post.

A 57-page packet reviewed by the Post offered a bleak assessment of the center’s future to the center’s board of trustees ahead of a special meeting on Tuesday. At that meeting, the Trump-led board is expected to consider two crucial issues affecting the center: its finances and the building’s crumbling infrastructure.

Center officials have reportedly said that they may soon be unable to make payroll or continue to pay routine maintenance contracts. They also recommended to the board that they close the center’s main building due to a recent ceiling collapse. Officials believe that recognizing Trump could help secure enough funds to keep the institution alive.

Should the board approve these changes, the Kennedy Center could close as early as Tuesday.

For his part, Trump has offered to “raise the necessary funds to keep the Center from bankruptcy” while the building undergoes renovations. Trump is unlikely to provide “fundamental oversight” of the project or financially rescue the center, however, without “appropriate recognition,” the Post reports.

Ticket sales have been declining in the 10 months since Trump’s takeover of the center, with the performing arts venue projected to fall nearly $100 million short of its revenue target. Officials have predicted that this fiscal year’s revenue will miss its budget target by 70 percent, while contributed revenue is expected to fall 25 percent short.

“This constant effort to add Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center facade is the definition of insanity,” lawyers Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, who represent Ohio Democrat Representative and Kennedy Center trustee Joyce Beatty, said in a statement. “This is now the third attempt to deface this sacred memorial and turn it into a vanity project for one man’s ego. Worse still, now Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way.”

The Kennedy Center’s Trump-appointed executive director, Matt Floca, reportedly told trustees that a roughly four-by-five-foot section of the building’s ceiling fell about 60 feet in the concert hall’s entrance. Inspectors are reported to have also identified at least seven other locations with visible water-related deterioration.

Engineers who separately examined the building’s exterior supposedly found widespread corrosion in structural components of the soffit panels along the underside of an overhang that wraps around the center. An examination of half of the building’s 278 panels reportedly revealed that 46 had severe structural corrosion and 93 had mild-to-moderate corrosion; one third of them requires immediate replacement.

“Another example of the urgent need to close for renovation and revitalization, as our Chairman President Trump has championed. Fortunately, no one was injured when the main hall’s ceiling collapsed. This structural failure stems from decades of neglect and deferred maintenance by the previous leadership, and there’s no justification for further delays in restoring America’s cultural center,” Kennedy Center spokeswoman Roma Daravi said in a statement at the time of the ceiling collapse.

Trump first proposed closing the center for two years in February, with the board subsequently approving the plan in March. US District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the closure in May, however, finding that trustees did not have sufficient information prior to voting on the decision and allowed the board to reconsider. He also ruled that only Congress can rename the Kennedy Center and ordered Trump’s name removed.

On August 13, the board again approved the two-year shutdown and $250 million renovation, with this latest proposal coming not even one month later. Now, trustees are reportedly being asked to choose a text for the building’s exterior, such as “Renovation Restoration and Endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” Cooper is reportedly considering a legal challenge to the proposal.

The center’s newer expansion, The Reach, is expected to remain open, with performances and other programming to continue at alternate venues.