Kennedy Center board still considering closure and renovation, no programming set
Last month, a federal judge blocked the planned closure.
The leadership of the Kennedy Center says it is still considering closing for a full-scale renovation as it weighs a range of options, including staying open while construction proceeds.
But for the moment, officials say no further programming has been scheduled.
The update on the Kennedy Center's plans came in a late Friday filing to the federal judge who last month blocked the planned closure.
In the same decision last month that ordered the Trump administration to remove President Donald Trump's name from the performing arts center, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center's board failed in its fiduciary responsibilities by effectively rubber-stamping the renovation proposal, which called for the shuttering of the performing arts center early next month.
Cooper's order from May 29 blocked the center's board from moving forward with its plans to "conduct an orderly wind-down of programming through the spring of 2026, and close [the center's] doors entirely effective July 6, 2026."
In his ruling, Cooper said the board made what he called an "ill-informed" and "seemingly preordained" decision to close the center "without regard for how it would accomplish its full array of statutory responsibilities."
In the Friday night filing, Kennedy Center executive director Matt Floca laid out three options that he says will be presented to the center's board in mid-July:
"a. A full closure of the Center to accelerate construction activities with no ongoing public programming.
"b. A partial closure of specific building spaces, enabling some continued public access and limited programming in unaffected spaces.
"c. A coordinated series of phased closures designed to address the most critical infrastructure needs while maintaining more onsite programming."
For the moment, Floca said Kennedy Center management will allow for "continued public access" to the building, which also houses an extensive JFK exhibit as part of its memorial to the late president.
But even as the doors will remain open, Justice Department lawyers said "management has not yet taken any affirmative steps related to programming or staffing."
In response, attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case accuse the Kennedy Center's leaders of planning to leave the building a "lifeless husk."
Opponents who filed the suit to block the closure, led by Kennedy Center board member Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, said in their part of the joint filing that the center's leaders could be working to restore programming but "flatly refuse to do anything, implementing their shutdown decision by inertia."
Last week, following a last-minute appeal, which was rejected, the Trump administration complied with the judge's order to remove Trump's name from the building.
However, scaffolding remains in place covering part of the side of the building, obscuring the public's ability to see the absence of Trump's name from the building's facade, as well as the continued presence of Kennedy's.
In their filing, the plaintiffs also point to the continued presence of the tarped scaffolding, saying it "appears to be semi-permanent" because it has been fashioned to allow for pedestrian access beneath it.
Lawyers for opponents said the center's leadership is "willfully sabotaging the Kennedy Center's iconic facade to assuage Defendants' vanity or massage broken egos."
A Kennedy Center official said earlier this week that the scaffolding would remain in place "as crews address maintenance needs of the marble and soffit panels."
Popular Reads
ABC News Live