The Trump-led board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has voted to move forward with a new plan to shutter its main building for renovations, according to the New York Times.
Under the plan, the Kennedy Center’s main building will be closed while a newer extension called The Reach will remain open for limited programming and operate as an active memorial to John F. Kennedy. The board also voted to inscribe President Donald Trump’s name on the building beneath the main signage.
The latest decision follows an “independent and objective analysis” of possible options by an outside consulting firm, which determined that keeping the main building open during renovations would be significantly more expensive.
The board’s resolution states that it is “fully committed” to continuing arts and educational programming during the closure and maintaining the “historic and architecturally significant nature of the center’s main building.” Per the resolution, the inscription underneath the Kennedy Center would read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”
Representatives for the Kennedy Center did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
The new plan is subject to approval from a federal judge, who had temporarily blocked the board’s previous plan to shutter the entire Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation earlier this year, ruling that the original vote was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.”
The judge also ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center, which the board is appealing.
At the time, the judge said that the board was “derelict” and based its decision on an “insufficient, one-sided presentation of information.” It also “neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure on programming and memorial functions.”
The Kennedy Center has been in limbo with performers exiting and going elsewhere and its workforce, which was already downsized through a round of layoffs in anticipation of a full closure, left in the dark about the future.
More to come…