JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
There is news coming out of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. On Sunday evening, The Washington Post reported that the Kennedy Center administration told its board that the arts institution is on the brink of bankruptcy and that it might be forced to close as soon as tomorrow. Here with more is NPR culture correspondent Anastasia Tsioulcas. Hi there.
ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS, BYLINE: Hi there, Juana.
SUMMERS: So, Anastasia, I have to say, I mean, we've been hearing about controversies with the Kennedy Center for a year now, and yet, this still seems pretty sudden. What's changed?
TSIOULCAS: Right. Well, the Kenny Center Board, which, of course, includes President Trump as its chairman, is still very caught up in federal litigation brought by Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio. She's a Democrat who's an ex officio member of the board, and she wants to stop the efforts to put Trump's name back on the building. So the judge in the suit, Christopher Cooper, had already scheduled a status hearing for tomorrow morning, which essentially should be a meeting to set more deadlines and court dates. And critics of the Kenny Center have told me they find a coincidence of timing perhaps not so coincidental.
The Kennedy (ph) Center did not respond to my request for comment today, but Beatty's team today filed two board resolutions with the court, and those show that the board is planning to shut down the center. They called it unsafe for continued occupancy. Beatty claims that the construction consultants the boards brought in have never said any such thing. And there's a second resolution, and that says that the Kennedy Center is in such a, quote, "precarious" financial position that it won't be able to meet payroll or maintenance contracts within weeks. And the board is also scheduled to meet early tomorrow afternoon.
SUMMERS: Right. And I know you've been following this really closely, and as you've reported, most of the Kennedy Center board was handpicked by President Trump. They elected Trump as chairman. And since President Trump took office, much of the administrative staff has either been fired or left, with those who remain largely loyal to the president. They're the ones who are now warning the board of trustees?
TSIOULCAS: Yes. And both the board and the administration of the center have been saying both (inaudible) and in court already that this situation is dire. So for example, on September 5, the center's administration said a portion of the ceiling in the main building's grand foyer collapsed due to rain damage. And certainly, the Kennedy Center's argument regarding the financials of the institution are also collapsing. And they say President Trump is the only person who can fundraise at such a massive scale and who can successfully oversee such an extensive renovation project. And they argue, as such, he deserves his name to be on the building.
SUMMERS: OK. Apart from the president's desire to have his name on the building, what is your sense of the Kennedy Center's financial status right now?
TSIOULCAS: So let's take a step back and put the Kennedy Center into a broader context. It's a large legacy, not-for-profit institution, and those kinds of organizations generally depend on a balance of three things, earned revenue, like tickets and merch, as well as philanthropic giving, including from their board, and some amount of government grants. And as we've previously reported, both artists and audiences have fled the Kennedy Center over the past year or so. They say it's become too politicized under Trump. The live calendar is a small fraction of what it used to be. Donations have also dried up. So it seems very likely that there is a real and dire financial crisis at the Kennedy Center. The question is, is the president and the board doubling down the way to solve it?
SUMMERS: NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas, thanks much.
TSIOULCAS: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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