The Trump Kennedy Center is shutting down for two years to complete renovations in perhaps the stupidest, most foolish move ever seen in the history of American theater. I was into the Trump administration's Kennedy Center takeover. I had visions of the greatness that could have been: new musicals, play competitions, classic American fare, Shakespeare.
But all that has now been dashed as the team behind the premiere arts mega-plex has decided to close it all down. The Trump Kennedy Center could have been the center of non-woke art in America and instead it will be just another set of institutional doors closed to conservative artists.
President Donald Trump, who renamed the arts center after himself, made the declaration on Truth Social, saying that he has "determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of Success, Beauty, and Grandeur, is to cease Entertainment Operations for an approximately two year period of time, with a scheduled Grand Reopening that will rival and surpass anything that has taken place with respect to such a Facility before."
The plan as it stands right now is to shutter the arts space on July 4, 2026 and to open two years later, on July 4, 2028, as the country braces for the next presidential election. There have been plenty of lefty artists who have quit their projects at the Kennedy Center, refused to allow their symphonies or musicals to be performed before audiences who would dare step foot in the spaces under Trump's name. Philip Glass is one of them, Lin-Manuel Miranda is another.
There is no universe in which this closure is a good idea. Any theater space is always in need of renovations, new dressing rooms, new draperies, plumbing, dry wall, acoustics, whatever. But there is no time, at this juncture in American culture, to give up a performance space that is not owned and occupied by leftist ideologues posing as artists. Those who are running the Trump Kennedy Center must open it up to American artists. They can start by putting out an open call for new work.
The artists are out there: composers, bands, lyricists, writers, directors, producers, actors. The highest eschalon of the arts may appear to be on Broadway and in Hollywood, but there are so many artists in this country who are gatekept from those lofty spaces. All the Trump Kennedy Center needs to do is invite them in. It won't be easy but it's the only way to create a new cultural space.
What would be better than a play competition awarding some $10,000 to $20,000 grant to a writer or a production team to bring in a new play about one of the Founding Fathers? Or a series of plays each taking for their subject one of the fabulous First Ladies? Or a new play set in the wagon trains of westward expansion? Or in the Alaskan gold rush? Or a musical on the life of Nicki Minaj? Or a country star? Or a series of plays based upon the myths and legends of the Native American tribes in New England? (I know that's really specific but you should see some of these stories.)
American history is so full of stories that have nothing to do with politics but have everything to do with who and what we are as a nation: seeking freedom, self-governance, independence. When was the last time conservative art lovers got to see themselves represented on stages? All we hear about in the intellectual arts set is how important representation is, for minorities both racial and sexual, but what we seldom see is work that expresses without judgement those things about American life, history, and experience that we all share.
Why don't we see it anymore? Because leftist activists have captured nearly every avenue of expression in our high arts and culture. That is, they had captured it until the Trump administration said "enough" and it looked like they were going to open up the Trump Kennedy Center to those artists and audiences who have been shut out of American high arts culture.
I feel fully the slam of this door not only in my face but in the faces of my fellow arts loving countrymen who had hopes that we could go to the theater and see some Shakespeare without gender-bending, some Moliere without Trump-hating, or even a ballet that's more Balanchine than hip-hop. The potential for what could be on the stages of the Trump Kennedy Center are so big and glorious, and yet the reality is so paltry and sad.
Honestly, closing down to fix it up looks an awful lot like defeat. It means the intellectual leftist artist elites have succeeded in their boycott of the Trump Kennedy Center. In what looks like capitulation, the Trump administration has said "fine, if you won't perform on these stages, no one will."
There are artists out there, they may not be in Hollywood, on Broadway, or in the Ivy League graduate programs, but they are out there, who would make great use of the opportunity to present their work on stage at the Trump Kennedy Center should it be afforded to them. There are artists who don't even like Trump, or government, but know a good opportunity when they see one and would jump at it.
People may argue that these artists are not as good, but to that I ask: have you seen what is out there passing for art these days? The Grammys are a schlockfest. The Oscar nominated movies are propagandist. The best thing on Broadway are revivals. Visual art is slop masquerading as political expression. The worst a group of amateur, conservative or non-political theater artists could come up with would still be better than all that.
It's a shame that the Trump Kennedy Center will shutter for two years when it could be creating and presenting culture and art during that time instead. And what happens if the GOP loses in 2028? The leftist ideologues get a newly renovated beautiful theater space from which to commence hating and belittling conservatives again.
I get it, it sucks for Trump to have artists poo-poo the arts space with his name on it, and it is easier to lean into what he knows, building, construction, and renovation. But the show must go on, and that goes for the Trump Kennedy Center perhaps above all else. A stage can be beautiful, the sound can be crystal, but if the work presented is propagandist trash, it doesn't matter how pristine the space is, it's just a garbage bin.
