theconversation.com: The Kennedy Center, a unique cultural enterprise located along the Potomac River in Washington, has a complex ownership and operating structure. The campus includes three large performance halls, two midsize theaters and many smaller venues and public spaces that host musical, theatrical and dance performances, lectures, exhibits and other special events.
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I loved this article because I honestly didn’t know a lot about the Kennedy Center until recently. The information in this article about the founding of the center was very illuminating, as was the description of the campus, the productions, and the lineup of talent. Before Trump decided to take over the center and control it, I would have liked to visit and see some shows. It sounded like a lovely and exciting place to be. Unfortunately, I will likely never have the chance to. Even worse, free expression and artistry is now being targeted and censored by the president. It is extremely concerning as an artist, and as a citizen of this country. I also am not naive enough to believe that he will stop here. I have no doubt that he will continue to crack down on free speech and expression, as he has already done in other areas. I believe all art is political regardless of intention, and as a young artist I will be expressing my opinions through my art as long as I am able.
This article was incredibly informative as to the operations of the Kennedy Center and how Trump’s recent actions will likely impact the Center for years to come. Ultimately, the dramatic change in leadership in such a public and political manner I believe will draw many crowds and artists away and cause significant financial stress for the organization as the article mentions. So drastically changing the political nature of the organization, which has remained so non-partisan over its entire history, is divisive and at this point only serves to stage art that the President would encourage. It would not be surprising if the Kennedy Center now just becomes a center for the expression of more conservative art in terms of the boundaries it pushes and the messages that its art represents. More interestingly, I wonder if there will be large changes in the staff of this organization too along party lines and will there be significant challenges to maintain these spaces as such? Regardless, I believe we will continue to hear about the Kennedy Center and see how this situation develops, in particular over this next year.
I have been hearing about this a lot lately, but I wasn't entirely sure what it meant and what the effect would be. Why does everyone care so much? So it's nice to see an informative article about it, highlighting the the dangers of this situation and the outcome it may have on a large community. I wonder what the true purpose behind this is. I also wonder if it will last for the whole administration, if the center will remain open that whole time? I understand that donors and audience members may not want to support the center anymore if they believe that equates to supporting the government/current administration directly, but they are also supporting art. I hope we as a community don't lose that. It would be a shame to lose a historical yet prevalent cultural center in this society. I hope it doesn't lose all that it once was.
He seems to be on a witch hunt and seeing how far his powers can reach, trying to push through as much damage to arts and sciences as he can at the start of his term. With this, the smithsonian has operated so successfully because of its bipartisanship, drawing in investors and donations from both sides of the political divide. The two hundred eighty six million dollar budget is impressive and putting on over 2200 performances in a year definitely needs that kind of backing or else they will need to cut back. Harming the arts and sciences from the smithsonian harms the education and free thought that many people gain from experiencing the museums and performances that the smithsonian orchestrates. The sudden partisanship is going to harm the organization because it draws funding and support from both political sides and artists who view what Trump is doing as an egregious use of office.
I heard about Trump's firing of board members at the Kennedy center and what that means in regards to a political standpoint but what I had not previously realized is that the Kennedy Center is the performing arts. Art will always hold the emotions of people and in a time of great turmoil everyone turns to artistic expression in order to express themselves so I find it concerning that Trump has attacked and basically taken away very competent employees and put himself in charge just to spread his own view. By doing this he not only is expanding his political power from a governmental position but has basically destroyed any possibility of growth within the Kennedy center. Trump has no previous involvement in any part of the entertainment industry and will be unable to adequately help the center causing them to get slowly dragged down over all limiting artistic expression.
I keep hearing about this and I talk about it frequently with my friends. Technically since the Kennedy center is a governmental organization, trump has every legal right to do what he did. And legally the Kennedy center has to comply with the executive orders he proclaimed. However, it would have made more sense for him to just enforce his executive orders and stay the fuck out of their business otherwise, but instead, he inserted himself directly into the organization, fired people, and replaced them with his loyalists. I don’t know, but that seems like a bit of an overreach. And unnecessary. He just wants to infuse as many organizations and businesses with his ideals as possible. I hate that he in censoring the arts like this. Arts should be able to comment freely about the climate of the world and their own nation. Arts should face little to no censorship like this.
What’s going to happen when art and government mix? Is this the first move in an authoritarian take over of the arts? Art has always been a form of protest and commentary on society and government. What this means for the arts in the US is scary. With that being said art has prevailed before and art will prevail again. Many theatrical masterpieces came in response to oppressive governments. We need to be poignant and artfully craft what messages we want to put into the world through our art. Trump has canceled A Peacock Among Pigeons: Celebrating 50 Years of Pride, a performance of the Gay Men's Chorus and Finn a coming of age musical about a fish. A fish who wants to hang out with gentler fish. Because it may be a metaphor for being gay. What are we doing in response to this? What neighboring theaters are creating a space for these canceled performances to perform in? We need to band together as a community and support each other in these uncertain times.
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