The Trump-appointed board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted unanimously Monday to shutter the arts mecca for two years for renovations.
“Major renovations are required to keep the facility functional, and that will start right after July 4,” the center’s vice president of public relations, Roma Daravi, said in a statement.
“This project will transform the Center into a world-class destination worthy of the nation’s legacy and future — a landmark where every American is welcome to experience artistic excellence and premiere entertainment,” Daravi said.
The board also voted to name Matt Floca as the center’s chief operating officer and executive director, replacing interim head Richard Grenell, who President Donald Trump announced was stepping down last week.
Trump touted the planned renovations on Truth Social ahead of the vote, saying the renovations will transform the center into “the finest performing arts facility” in the world.
He said that “the fastest way to bring the Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of success, beauty and grandeur is to cease the entertainment operations for a two-year period of time as we complete high quality, really high quality construction.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio board member who sued to ensure she could attend the meeting, confirmed that the vote was unanimous. A judge ruled Saturday that she be allowed to attend but not necessarily permitted to vote. She was not allowed to vote Monday.
Trump fired the center’s board and named himself chairman in February 2025. Near the end of last year, the board voted to add his name to the center, which led some artists to cancel their performances.
Trump said Monday that the center’s programming had been too “woke.” He said that the closure was necessary because of what he called the poor state of the building, which opened in 1971, and that it would be more efficient to temporarily close it during the renovations.
“It’s not even describable how bad this building was, inside and out,” Trump said. “Everything’s in bad shape. It’s got to be redone.”
“You have to close it. Putting new marbles in, beautiful, beautiful marbles. When you do marbles, you can’t have people walking over the marble every night as its drying and setting going to a play,” he said.
Trump praised the work that has been done so far, pointing to new paint on exposed steel.
“It was painted a cheap gold and we turned into a very expensively painted white, very heavy coat of very powerful white paint meant for steel, exposed steel,” Trump said.
“When it’s finished its going to be far better than it was when it was built,” he said.
