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When the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opened in September 1971, it was a solemn celebration featuring a new radical work by Leonard Bernstein: his genre to jump genre Mass Commanded by the widow of the first Catholic president of the country. But there was a daring name especially in the new sparkling opera: the president in office Richard Nixon.
It was not an accident. The White House had drawn the FBI of Bernstein’s file – the one who finally counted more than 800 pages and was obtained by The New YorkerThe AS of classical music Alex Ross by the request of the Freedom of Information Act in 2009 – and warned that the work was likely to reflect anti -Vietnam activism well understood by Bernstein. To bypass the potentially clumsy evening, Nixon rather attended a national event of the symphonic orchestra, leaving this “slutty son” Bernstein to the length of the arm. It was Richard Nixon’s approach to the high temple of this nation for the arts of the show. He suspected that he would not appreciate a work or his message, but he never realized it to close it. Nixon, as well as anyone, understood the potential for sweet cultural commitment power.
Half a century later, Donald Trump gave a large similar place to Kennedy Center during his first mandate. He came about this posture through the annual honors of the Center Kennedy Center, in which a handful of artists or groups are honored for contributions to American culture. The president and the first lady traditionally attend the starry ceremony and welcome the winners of the White House. During the first year of Trump’s office, three laureates threatened to jump the event made for television rather than sharing the space with Trump. Remoiled in an impossible corner of weakness, Trump moved away from the ceremony throughout his mandate, allowing Norman Lear and Lin-Manuel Miranda to participate without having to shake the hand of Trump. For Trump, it was a real demonstration of Nixonian diplomacy. He never set foot in what is essentially a palace for national arts.
This time, Trump does not feel as magnanimous. During a question of days, the president rejected the members of the Kennedy Center board of directors appointed by Joe Biden to six -year mandates, appointed president of the director organ, and installed a loyalist , Richard Grenell, like his interim chief. Wednesday, his total takeover of this institution seemed complete: a board of directors entirely appointed by Trump made him the president, he indeed empowered to control the artistic choices made on the de facto national stage.
“We will make Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!” Trump posted on his social media platform.
The impact of this Magan takeover of Kennedy Center could be seen immediately. The longtime chief of the center, Deborah F. Rutter, was now released, and the musician Ben Folds quickly resigned from his post as artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra, who calls the Kennedy Center his house.
The honors of Kennedy Center could be the place where Trump’s new involvement takes place most visibly. Although the winners are selected by the Board of Directors and the former winners, it is difficult to imagine that recent winners like Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney accepting such a distinction if they know that Trump had played a more remarkable role. Indeed, the honors of Kennedy Center over the next four years could end up going exclusively to these comfortable artists next to Trump.
A similar change could undergo another franchise Kennedy Center – the Mark Twain Prize for American humor – which is generally selected by a nebulous circle of initiates from Kennedy Center. The prize – perhaps the most prestigious honor in comedy – has disappeared in recent years in Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart and Julia -Louis Dreyfus. (The winner of this year, Conan O’Brien – which should be celebrated next month – has far removed from politics but fell Biden in 2020.)
The challenges of all this may seem weak – talent people receive no price is hardly the biggest problem, but what the Kennedy Center chooses to put on its steps can pass on to Hollywood and, through its products, in the whole world. About 2,200 events take place there every year, attracting 2 million visitors – who can all feel Trump’s hand as a curator. And as he stacks his calendar with the first world musical theater, operas and orchestral and dance works, the Kennedy Center range is also equivalent to discreet cultural diplomacy. There is a reason why the law requires that the Secretary of State has a seat at the table for the meetings of the Board of Directors. The honors of Kennedy Center generally make the State Department one of its stages during the game weekends.
On the surface, Trump blames his redemption efforts on recent Kennedy Center events that featured Drag Queens. But all the time, the president openly thinks of giving himself a reservation power in the future.
“We took over the Kennedy Center. We don’t like what they were showing and various other things, ”Trump said on Monday. “I’m going to be president, and we will make sure that it is good and that it will not be” awake “.”
Politics has never been completely closed of Kennedy Center, and the arts have never been immune to politics. The threat of boycotts always scares any organization where even the slightest puff could threaten the loyalty of donors.
Likewise, the alienation of a president apparently determined to break everything that approaches dissent or disloyalty is not a risk that many Washington institutions are ready to take for the moment. After Trump signed a decree ending the diversity programs through the federal government, the Smithsonian, which is not in fact a federal agency, quickly eliminated its own efforts. (Two thirds of employers in the institution are, however, federal workers and congresses have a surveillance and financing role.)
Meanwhile, some companies with government links take action to disrupt everything that could draw Trump’s negative attention. On Monday, the massive entrepreneur of the Booz Allen government announced that it was abandoned as the main sponsor of the world’s world pride, which is expected to attract up to 3 million LGBTQ people in the DC region.
So, yes, the cold is real. Now we are about to see a center of Kennedy stacked with things of Trump tastes.
On his social media platform, Trump published an image generated by the AI of him as a conductor. “Welcome to the New Kennedy Center!” He subtitled the false photo while the purge of 18 members of the board of directors shocked the DC arts community which expected four years of benign indifference.
Nixon understood that the real public in Kennedy Center is not the crowd of DC which walks on the red carpet in a plush or standing on the newly restored terrace. The world looks at the programming on this campus. This is why, faced with a public reprimand, he remained away, but that the world could see freedom of expression and art be demonstrated without fear of censorship. These days, Trump gives himself the role of referee of American taste. The Kennedy Center is only another step for Trump, but it can organize unilaterally depending on its whims without regard to what it sends messages on national identity.
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