Judge Cooper Sets August Kennedy Center Deadline After Halting 2-Year Closure
Updated
Updated · The Atlantic · Jul 30
Judge Cooper Sets August Kennedy Center Deadline After Halting 2-Year Closure
3 articles · Updated · The Atlantic · Jul 30
Summary
An August deadline now requires the Kennedy Center to tell U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper how it plans to handle construction, operations and the tarp still covering the facade.
Cooper’s May ruling blocked President Donald Trump’s proposed two-year shutdown for renovations and ordered his name removed, leaving the center open but without a settled operating plan.
Nearly all major stages are dark as the Washington National Opera has split off, the resident symphony has not announced a season, and board members have offered little beyond a vote to appeal.
Millennium Stage has become the center’s main live-programming holdout, though it has been cut to two or three shows a week and moved to the Reach’s River Pavilion.
That reduced series is expected to survive because separate endowment funding and legal obligations to present arts programming have made it a fallback while the broader institution remains in near-stasis.