Less than a month into his second term, President Donald Trump became Board Chair of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. On Feb. 12, he was unanimously elected by a board that included members he personally appointed after purging 18 Democratic appointees.
“Usually the board is half-Republican, half-Democrat,” TheatreMcLean director Phillip Reid said. “Now, the board consists mostly of Trump’s loyalists.”
Founded in 1971, the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts is the national cultural center of the U.S. and holds a wide variety of performances including jazz, classical music and theater.
“As an arts teacher, I feel like it’s the one place where everyone is welcome,” orchestra teacher Starlet Smith said. “Every single night, there’s a concert for free on the Millennium Stage, and it’s just such a wonderful place for anyone of any race, ethnicity or income to go there and see a great performance.”
Trump’s goal for presiding over the Kennedy Center is to move the center away from programming that he deems “woke,” or extremely socially aware.
“Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth—THIS WILL STOP,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, TruthSocial on Feb. 7.
The Kennedy Center headed by Trump has canceled certain shows with LGBTQ+ underpinnings. The Gay Men’s Chorus of D.C. and Finn, a children’s musical that explores LGBTQ+ themes, are two of those shows. The Kennedy Center cited a “strictly financial decision” to cancel Finn’s tour, although there may be a deeper undisclosed reason.
“Art is supposed to be an expression, no matter what,” Reid said. “[Trump] is just upset—he thinks that this story about a little fish who wants to wear sparkly clothes is [an attempt to] indoctrinate children.”
Historically, the Kennedy Center has operated autonomously without political intervention. Trump is now leveraging his power to control programming decisions, which has raised concerns about potential threats to freedom of speech.
“Suddenly we have a president who seems to be infiltrating politics into the arts, when we usually try to keep them separate,” Smith said. “That is startling, because we live in a country that’s supposed to have free speech. The arts are supposed to be free flowing. When you get into too much censorship, it could really be a detriment.”
Local organizations could be hit hard by these changes. Launched by FCPS, the Cappies is an international theater and journalism program for high schoolers. Students are challenged to attend each other’s theater performances throughout the school year and write published reviews to determine which ensemble will perform at the Kennedy Center for an annual gala.
“At the end of the year, we do a big gala at the Kennedy Center,” Reid said. “It’s so sad that we’re going to be honoring high school theater at a place that doesn’t honor all theater. Hundreds of thousands of kids come from all over to celebrate the arts, and it’s something that’s going to have a different feeling come when we do it this year.”
Some see Trump’s executive position as an overall insignificant impact on the Kennedy Center’s future activities.
“If the current rhetoric stays the way it is, I don’t see much of a change at all,” said Alexander Joe, a junior at Yorktown High School who is a member of a fellowship program for young aspiring musicians at the Kennedy Center. “The new administration so far has been very supportive of the permanent programs at the Kennedy Center, such as the National Symphony or the Washington National Opera.”
Other arts enthusiasts envision potential polarization in the future of American arts.
“There’s going to be two splits,” Reid said. “It’s going to divide this country even more to the point where some theaters are going to go the way of the Kennedy Center, and there’s going to be other theaters that are going to rebel. It’s just not going to be as expressive and as creative and as welcoming as it has been.”