Contributor: Arts hubs like the Kennedy Center sustain the nation
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Set us as preferred Like any other building from 1971, or a democracy created in 1776, the Kennedy Center could use some attention and possibly some structural repair.But I was a vice president at that arts center in Washington, and I can tell you that maintenance is almost certainly not why it closed its doors last month.Officially, it’s closed because a section of the Grand Foyer ceiling gave way in a storm, plaster crashing to the floor, and the building needed to be shut down for safety.
The Justice Department itself has argued in court filings that there is no real emergency requiring the closure.The board, meanwhile, has approved a quarter-billion-dollar renovation plan, put together without competitive bidding, while the president muses openly about tearing the building down altogether if his own name isn’t affixed to it.
This administration is effectively bulldozing arts infrastructure in an attempt to abolish an infrastructure of the imagination.I watch all of this from the outside now.When the new “leadership” took over last year, my team and I were among the first let go.
My department worked on free public programming, on creative equity, on cross-sector community development and on measuring the social impact of art.That we were among the first out the door probably tells you everything you need to know about who was put in charge of the place.As an American, as an artist and as a former member of its labor force, I understand that the Kennedy Center is more than a building.
It is a living memorial to a president who was taken from us too soon, a man who had the audacity to aim for the moon before the science existed to get us there.To honor that kind of visionary, this country built a center for the creative impossible, and gave it his name.And true to that name, my job at the Kennedy Center was to in...