A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Let's hear more about a potential Kennedy Center closure with Philip Kennicott. He is The Washington Post art and architecture critic. Philip, so the Kennedy Center underwent an expansion in 2019, which President Trump criticized. So how much work is actually needed right now? What are some of the main issues?
PHILIP KENNICOTT: Well, as Tamara laid out, we don't really know. There is not a building in the government's real estate portfolio that doesn't need a lot of work done on deferred maintenance. Kennedy Center is a 1970s building. I think it opened in 1971, around there. I would not be surprised if it needed a new roof and an updated HVAC system. Patrons have long wished that, for instance, the concert hall had better acoustics, and that could require some substantial retrofitting. But in terms of the kinds of building projects that would take two years, it really isn't clear what the president intends to do, and he certainly hasn't been specific about that.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. That's what I wanted to ask about because typically with these kind of things, sometimes it goes in stages so that things don't get shut down entirely. So I'm wondering exactly, yeah, how big is this thing going to wind up?
KENNICOTT: Well, he used some alarming words in the Truth Social post. He talked about a kind of major rebuild. And he stressed the entertainment idea as part of the Kennedy Center. Of course, it's always been, you know, a place where entertainment happens, but it's been mainly a performing arts center. And so I think the question that really worries longtime patrons, subscribers and audience members and artists is whether or not this will return as the Kennedy Center but refurbished, a little better, maybe a little more gold leaf everywhere, or whether or not there's a plan to fundamentally create a new building for a different purpose, something that would serve the president's personal agenda, that would be more in line with the kinds of events that he has used the Kennedy Center for since he took it over a year ago. You know, he held the FIFA World Cup draw. This is a big event...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
KENNICOTT: ...In the soccer world there. It may emerge as a building that serves those kinds of purposes and not necessarily the arts for which it was originally planned and designed.
MARTÍNEZ: So maybe mixed martial arts at the Kennedy Center (laughter).
KENNICOTT: You know, that would've been a joke a year ago. People would - we would've laughed at it. It would seem funny. But the idea that he, one, would take over the Kennedy Center personally as president and then, two, put his own name on a building that is the actual living memorial to a slain president - those were unthinkable, but they've now happened. So it is not beyond the realm of reckoning that it could be a mixed martial arts facility or a casino. Who knows?
MARTÍNEZ: Philip, could these renovations maybe help stem the artist cancellations or maybe low ticket sales that have followed Trump's takeover of the center, or could it possibly lead to even worse financial losses?
KENNICOTT: Yeah. No, I think it's actually going to cause a cascade of disruptions that will really break apart the several communities that have to exist and overlap to keep a performing arts center viable. That means artists who are often booked years in advance. That means donors who don't give just a big check at Mar-a-Lago once in a while, but regularly give to support the organizations like the symphony or the opera - and, of course, the audiences, who - if they're homeless for two years, who knows if they will develop the habit to return to the Kennedy Center on a nightly basis?
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's Washington Post art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott. Thank you very much, Philip, for your thoughts on this.
KENNICOTT: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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