The Kennedy Center: Dead or Alive?
By • September 16, 2026 0 320
Mr. President, Please Don’t Assassinate the Kennedy Center.
The Kennedy Center is in crisis.
On Sept. 15, its board voted to close the main building immediately, citing serious structural problems and an increasingly dire financial situation. Center officials have warned that the institution could be unable to meet payroll and routine maintenance obligations “within a matter of weeks.”
At the same time, a federal judge again blocked efforts to put President Donald Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center’s exterior, ruling that such a change requires congressional authorization.
Lost amid the legal motions, financial warnings and political maneuvering is something Washingtonians understand instinctively:
The Kennedy Center belongs to all of us.
For 55 years, millions of people have walked through those halls to hear the National Symphony Orchestra, see Washington National Opera, attend a musical or dance performance, celebrate a birthday or simply stand on the terrace overlooking the Potomac.
For Georgetown, it is a neighbor. Visible from countless spots in the neighborhood, the Kennedy Center dominates that breathtaking bend in the river. It is part of our everyday landscape — and our collective memory.
Again, it’s personal.
One Georgetowner editor remembers his first visit just a month after the center opened in 1971. His high school girlfriend was visiting him at Georgetown University, and they went to see Cat Stevens, who looked around the brand-new building and told the audience: “I love your new houseboat.”
Over the decades, our editors have attended countless performances and encountered everyone from Plácido Domingo and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Jerry Seinfeld, Jonathan Winters and Queen Noor.
Author Kitty Kelley put the current predicament more pointedly: “Trump saying he’ll let the Kennedy Center go into bankruptcy unless they put his name on the building reminds me of the old lawyer story about asking the defendant who killed his parents and begs for leniency because he’s an orphan.”
But sentiment alone cannot save an institution.
If the Kennedy Center needs major repairs, repair it. If its finances need rescuing, rescue them. If Washington needs to rally around one of its most important cultural institutions, now is the time.
What should not be lost is the identity of a national memorial created in honor of President John F. Kennedy and his commitment to the arts.
This Friday, Sept. 18, at 6:30 p.m., Hands Off the Arts plans a gathering at the Kennedy Center, culminating in a human chain around the building.
Whatever one’s politics, the Kennedy Center’s future matters far beyond this moment.
Save it. Restore it. Reopen it. Keep it the Kennedy Center.
In the words of JFK: “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”
