The Kennedy Center: A History
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The Kennedy Center has been in the news recently, but its history and operations have not been written about very much in current news accounts. I thought there might be some interest in knowing more about these matters.
As some may know, I served on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees for twenty years, the last fourteen as chair. President Trump has now succeeded me as chair, and I have retired from the board with fond memories of the Center, and with an appreciation of being able to serve the country and the performing arts world in that role.
For those who do not live in Washington or have never visited the Center, let me give you some background about what it does and why it was created.
At the country's beginning, the capital was in New York. As a result of a compromise between Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, it was agreed that the debt of the states from the Revolutionary War, roughly $70 million, would be assumed by the federal government, in return for which the capital city would be relocated to the South. President Washington was given the responsibility to find a location for a new capital in the South along the Potomac River. As we now know, Washington selected an area known today as Washington, DC.
As the architect for this new city, Washington initially selected a French designer, Pierre L’Enfant. Apparently, Washington said to him that a great capital, like Paris and London, had to have a cultural center, and Washington wanted one designed for the new city. (Washington loved the performing arts and would give gifts to his friends of tickets to concerts, shows, or operas.) A design for such a center was indeed included in the original plans for the new city. Unfortunately, funding was tough to secure, and L'Enfant was ultimately removed by Washington, resulting in no national cultural center.
So entrepreneurs built theatres in Washington—the most famous of which was Ford's Theatre—but there were many similar types of theatres in Washington from the 1800s forward.
In the beginning of the 20th century, there began to be some calls by members of Congress and others to actually build a national culture center, but nothing really occurred for quite some time. When Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady, she also became an advocate for such a center. Still, Congress did not move forward, in part perhaps because some Southern members of Congress felt that such a center might have to be integrated, and they could not politically support that outcome.
But finally, in 1958, Congressman Frank Thompson of New Jersey managed to get a bill through Congress and signed by President Eisenhower, creating a National Cultural Center.
Unfortunately, no money was provided, and the Center had to be built with all private sector dollars. After a few years of fundraising, and after expenses were paid, only about $13,000 was raised—not enough to build a Center.
When President Kennedy took office, he re-invigorated the fundraising effort by appointing a New York real estate developer and Broadway producer, Roger Stevens, as the head of an effort to secure the requisite funding. Stevens tried many approaches, including a number of national fundraising telethons. At some of them, Leonard Bernstein presided, and in one he brought to the stage a seven-year-old cello player that had been recommended to him by Pablo Casals. It was Yo-Yo Ma, and he was pretty good even at that age. (This can be seen on YouTube.)
Fundraising did pick up, but not by enough to get the Center built even toward the end of 1963. And then President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
Shortly thereafter, his family decided that it would like to honor him by having the National Cultural Center become a living memorial to him, and in early 1964, Congress passed legislation renaming the National Cultural Center the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
At that point, to get the Center built, Congress agreed to contribute funds, as did corporations and foreign nations, in addition to private citizens.
There was a great deal of discussion about exactly where the Center should be built. Most of the land was provided by the federal government and a small part was donated by a private family on the Potomac River, and that was the site initially selected and approved by all of the relevant government bodies. Construction began in December of 1964, with President Johnson leading the groundbreaking, using the same golden spade used for the ground breakings of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. But construction stopped for a while, as a site on the National Mall was thought to be more centrally located and accessible. When that review was completed, it was decided to stay with the Potomac River site, and construction proceeded. The ultimate cost was $70 million, about 60% from the federal government and the rest from the private sector, including foreign governments. (Today, the cost of building the Center would likely be closer to $2 billion.)
When the Center was created, it was part of the Interior Department, but in time the Center became a semi-independent non-profit organization. Currently, the President of the United States appoints the trustees to six-year terms; there are thirty-six Presidential Trustees. And then there are another twenty-three ex-officio trustees from the administration, Congress, DC local government, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian.
The Kennedy Center opened on September 8, 1971, with a gala concert featuring a piece—“Mass” by Leonard Bernstein—that had been commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy.
The Center has three main halls: the Opera House, the Concert Hall, and the Eisenhower Theatre. At nearly 1.5 million square feet, the Center was designed by Edward Durell Stone, a Philadelphia-based architect whose work was admired by Mrs. Kennedy. She first admired his work when, as First Lady, she visited the new American embassy in Delhi, India that Stone had designed.
In 2019, the Kennedy Center added the REACH—a Steven Holl designed addition—with three pavilions designed for rehearsals, arts education, smaller audience performances, outdoor performances, and community engagement.
From the beginning, various members of the Kennedy family were quite involved with the Center, with his brother, Senator Edward Kennedy and his sister, Jean Kennedy Smith serving for many decades as trustees. For a number of years, President Kennedy’s daughter Caroline and granddaughter Rose also served as trustees.
The typically nonpartisan nature of the Center can be seen at the Center's annual showcase event, the Honors, where large numbers of prominent Democrats and Republicans, including former and current members of the federal government's three branches, attend.
(The Honors, conceived by producers George Stevens, Jr. and Nick Vanoff, began in 1978 as a way of honoring lifetime achievement in the performing arts. The high standard for future years was set in the first year with Honorees Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers, and Arthur Rubinstein.)
Since that time, the Center has honored 255 people, with a gala performance occurring in early December, which is later broadcast on CBS.
The Kennedy Center’s other signature program—now on Netflix—is the Mark Twain Prize, which began in 1998 with recipient Richard Pryor. This year’s recipient is Conan O’Brien.
Like most performing arts organizations in the country, the Center depends on two main sources of revenue—ticket sales and charitable contributions. The US government provides funding only for the maintenance and security of the Center's buildings, and that is now about 18% of the budget. (About 47% of the budget comes from tickets sales, and about 35% comes from contributions.) Currently, the Center has a budget of about $268 million a year, and more than 400 employees work at the Center (not counting over 600 volunteers); many have worked there for decades, not because of the lush compensation—it is largely government scale—but because of their dedication to the arts.
The leadership of the Board has been selected, as provided in the authorizing legislation, by the Board. The first chair was Roger Stevens, who helped get the Center off the ground, and served in various capacities for twenty-eight years. He was followed by a number of others—Republicans, Democrats, Independents—who served for varying periods of time: Ralph Davidson, James Wolfensohn, James Johnson, Ken Duberstein, Alma Gildenhorn, and Steve Schwarzman.
The Center is run day-to-day by a president. Larry Wilker and Michael Kaiser held this position in earlier years. Deborah Rutter, who served previously as head of both the Seattle and the Chicago Symphonies, served as president for the past ten years.
In 1986, The National Symphony became part of the Kennedy Center and is the Center’s resident symphony orchestra.
In 2011, the Washington National Opera began an affiliate relationship with the Kennedy Center.
Although the Center is known for these televised and celebrity-filled events, it actually presents a wide array of regularly scheduled programs—about 2000—every year in symphonic music, ballet and dance, opera, comedy, Broadway-type shows, and hip-hop. In addition, the Center provides a free performance every day on its Millennium Stage.
All of the programs attract about two million patrons a year; another two million visit the Center each year as tourists, interested in touring the Center, seeing the iconic Robert Best bust of John Kennedy, the recently installed life-size statue of John Kennedy, and the new exhibition hall of President Kennedy’s accomplishments, particularly in the cultural area. (This was created a few years ago, for over 70% of Americans were not alive during Kennedy’s Presidency, and thus a large percentage of visitors know comparably little about the 35th President.)
The Kennedy Center is now transitioning to a new Board and management team. President Trump is now chairing the Board, and he has recently appointed new trustees to fill the thirty-six positions, all of whom have been appointed by him.
I wish the Center all of the best in its new leadership.