With the same gold-plated spade used at the Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial groundbreakings, President Lyndon B. Johnson removed a spadeful of dirt from the earth along the Potomac River.
It was December 1964. After nearly a decade since its inception, Johnson had broken ground on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The Center opened its doors to the public in 1971, per the official Kennedy Center website. The art center was hailed by The New York Times as “a gigantic marble temple to music, dance, and drama on the Potomac’s edge.”
“Other countries' cities have their theaters, opera houses, and concert halls, but our capital city has lacked an adequate place for our great orchestras, singers, dancers, and actors,” Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis said at the center’s inaugural program.
She continued, “Now, at last, we will have a home for the performing arts in our own nation’s capital. Here, there will be splendid productions of opera, music, theater, dance and film – productions that will give our performing artists a national base and will strengthen artistic opportunities and standards throughout the land."
“For the Kennedy Center exists not for Washington alone. It exists for the entire nation.”
Here is a brief history of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
A brief history of the Kennedy center
In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed the nation build a public auditorium in Washington, D.C as a means to keep up with the global arts and culture scene, per the Kennedy Center’s official website.
Then in 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Cultural Center Act, confirming the importance of arts and culture to the nation.
“The National Cultural Center Act included four basic components: it authorized the Center’s construction, spelled out an artistic mandate to present a wide variety of both classical and contemporary performances, specified an educational mission for the Center, and stated that the Center was to be an independent facility, self-sustaining, and privately funded. These same principles still guide the Center’s work today‚” per the Kennedy Center’s official website.
When John F. Kennedy succeed Eisenhower as president, he launched a fundraising campaign which raised $30 million toward the project. Kennedy also appointed his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Mamie Eisenhower as honorary co-chairwomen for the venture.
At a 1962 fundraiser for the event, Kennedy told a crowd that included violinist Yo-Yo Ma, comedian Danny Kaye and poet Robert Frost, ”The encouragement of art is political in the most profound sense, not as a weapon in the struggle but as an instrument of understanding of the futility of struggle."
Following Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, the National Cultural Center was renamed the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a “living memorial” to Kennedy, per the center’s site.
“It’s like the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial,” Kennedy Center vice president of international programming Alicia Adams told DCist. “This one is for Kennedy. It just happens to be a living memorial.”
The Center opened to the public on September 8, 1971. The opening ceremony featured “the world premiere of a Requiem mass honoring President Kennedy, commissioned from the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein,” per the Kennedy Center.
Since its inauguration more than 50 years ago, the Kennedy Center has remained “a vibrant cultural hub that connects thousands of artists with millions of people each year.”
Who runs the Kennedy center?
President Donald Trump currently serves as chairman of the Kennedy Center, per The New York Times.
Trump, who was appointed as interim chairman of the center, announced his new position on Truth Social. “It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!,” he wrote.
The former president of the center, Deborah F. Rutter, was fired from her position in February. Richard Grenell, Trump’s envoy for special missions, currently serves as president of the center.
Melania Trump, Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Hilary Clinton serve as honorary co-chairs.
In addition to chairman, president and co-chairs, “The Kennedy Center is made up of artists, artisans, administrators, and trade professionals dedicated to our audiences and the Center’s mission, vision, and values,” the center says.
Who funds the Kennedy Center?
The Kennedy Center receives annual federal funding for repairs and maintenance of the building and its grounds, which are considered a federal facility, according to the Kennedy Center.
However, the Kennedy Center notes that programs and other events held at the center are nearly paid for through ticket sales and gifts donated by individuals, corporations and foundations.