President Trump introduced Friday that he deliberate to take over as chair of the Kennedy Middle in Washington, D.C.
Hulton Archive/Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
Hulton Archive/Getty Photos
President Trump says he’s taking over management of the John F. Kennedy Middle for Performing Arts. He declared himself chairman of Washington D.C.’s long-celebrated cultural establishment on Friday. In doing so, he’ll exchange billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, an ally of former President Joe Biden who was set to chair till 2026.
Posting on Fact Social, Trump wrote he was instantly terminating “a number of people” from the middle’s Board of Trustees “who don’t share our imaginative and prescient for a Golden Age in Arts and Tradition.”
Trump stated he would quickly announce a brand new board, “with an incredible Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” He additionally known as out the middle’s programming.
“Simply final 12 months, the Kennedy Middle featured Drag Reveals particularly concentrating on our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Middle is an American Jewel, and should replicate the brightest STARS on its stage from all throughout our Nation. For the Kennedy Middle, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
A consultant for Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chairman of personal fairness big Carlyle, stated he had “no remark” in regards to the information. However an announcement from the Kennedy Middle stated they’d obtained no official communications from the White Home relating to adjustments to the board of trustees, although they had been conscious that board members obtained termination notices.
“There’s nothing within the Middle’s statute that might forestall a brand new administration from changing board members,” learn the assertion. “Nonetheless, this might be the primary time such motion has been taken with the Kennedy Middle’s board.”
The assertion additionally referred to the “robust assist” the middle had obtained all through its historical past “from members of Congress and their staffs—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.” The Middle has had “a collaborative relationship with each presidential administration,” the assertion elaborated, with “a bi-partisan board of trustees that has supported the humanities in a non-partisan style.”
Throughout his first time period as president, Trump didn’t attend the Kennedy Middle’s annual gala; performing artists protested his administration and threatened to boycott Kennedy Middle occasions on the White Home.
It wasn’t instantly clear which Kennedy Middle board members Trump would oust. Throughout his presidency, Biden appointed a number of members to the middle’s board, together with former White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Democratic Nationwide Committee finance chair Chris Korge. TV producer Shonda Rhimes is the board’s treasurer, and musician Jon Batiste can also be on the board.
In response to the heart’s web site, President Dwight D. Eisenhower conceived of an “inventive mecca” within the nation’s capital in 1955. Eisenhower signed a regulation establishing the Nationwide Cultural Middle, and President Kennedy then led fundraising efforts to construct it. In 1964, two months after Kennedy was assassinated, the cultural heart opened in his identify as a “dwelling memorial” to current classical and modern music, opera, dance, and different performing arts from the U.S. and world wide.
Through the years, the Middle has showcased and honored many performing artists, together with Fred Astaire and Marian Anderson, in 1981 to final 12 months’s honorees, The Grateful Lifeless, Frances Ford Coppola, Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval and the Apollo Theater.
Amongst these performing on the Kennedy Middle this weekend are the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and a staging of the musical Schmigadoon.
