The Trump-appointed board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to partially close the Washington venue for up to two years during renovations and to re-add Donald Trump’s name to the building facade and plaza, defying a previous federal court order.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts renovation and renaming vote
Howard Lutnick proposal for President Donald J. Trump Plaza
The virtual board meeting, which lasted nearly two hours via Zoom, resulted in a 20-3 vote to shutter the main building while keeping a newer addition known as the Reach open for limited programming. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick proposed renaming the building The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump
and the physical location to President Donald J. Trump Plaza.
Congressional ex officio members Joyce Beatty, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Rick Larsen
The three votes against the resolution came entirely from congressional ex officio members: Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Democratic Representative Rick Larsen of Washington. Donald Trump, who named himself chairman of the board last year, joined the call for several minutes.
This latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the Court’s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed,
said Representative Joyce Beatty, who was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the naming. I will continue to fight for this treasured national monument.
Attorneys Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group, representing Beatty, criticized the vote in sharp terms. They argued that the new effort directly ignores a federal judge’s prior ruling that the board lacks the authority to unilaterally rename what was intended as a living memorial
for an assassinated president. “A federal judge already rejected the board’s unlawful attempt to rename the Kennedy Center, and told Donald Trump’s handpicked board that its last closure vote was ill-informed and preordained. Today’s vote is more of the same, and a show of blatant disrespect to the courts,” the lawyers stated.
The vote arrives amid an ongoing legal standoff. In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered Trump’s name to be removed from the building after ruling that the initial addition was illegal because only Congress possesses the authority to alter the institution’s name. The center complied by removing the signage in June, though that legal decision remains under appeal. Judge Cooper noted in his May decision, The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so.
Judge Cooper also temporarily blocked a previous unanimous March vote by the board to close the institution for two years, ruling that the decision was ill-informed and seemingly preordained. He stated at the time that the board was derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities to the Center
and failed to adequately consider its obligations to maintain the facility as a memorial to JFK.
Ahead of Thursday’s vote, management presented three distinct options to the board, including a complete closure or a partial closure that would allow some public access and limited programming. The board ultimately selected a partial closure approach that leaves the Reach open while the main building undergoes a plan for a $250m “renewal” project. That project includes structural repairs, new marble floors, acoustical improvements, and the temporary relocation of the institution’s famous 3,000-pound bronze bust of JFK.
National Symphony Orchestra search for alternative local performance spaces
The decision to close the main building leaves the National Symphony Orchestra—the center’s principal tenant since the early 1970s—without its primary Concert Hall. Management has initiated a search for alternative local performance spaces. The Kennedy Center has until next week to submit its updated closure and renovation plan to Judge Cooper, who will review whether the board has satisfied legal requirements for thorough due diligence.
Читайте также
