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President Trump took control of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington only last week. But his administration is already making plans for reshaping the institution\u2019s programming.<\/p>\n
Chief among them: a celebration of Christ planned for December. Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump named as the Kennedy Center\u2019s new president, told a conservative gathering on Friday that the \u201cbig change\u201d at the center would be that \u201cwe are doing a big, huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow crazy is it to think that we\u2019re going to celebrate Christ at Christmas with a big traditional production, to celebrate what we are all celebrating in the world during Christmastime, which is the birth of Christ?\u201d Mr. Grenell said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md.<\/p>\n
The Kennedy Center has long held Christmas-themed events.<\/p>\n
Last December, the center hosted \u201cA Candlelight Christmas<\/a>\u201d by the Washington Chorus; \u201cA Family Christmas<\/a>\u201d by the Choral Arts Society of Washington; and \u201cGo Tell It<\/a>,\u201d a Christmas celebration by the Alfred Street Baptist Church, a prominent Black church in Virginia. (On Sunday, the church said it would cancel<\/a> its Christmas concert there this year because the Kennedy Center\u2019s new leaders stood in opposition to the \u201clongstanding tradition of honoring artistic expression across all backgrounds.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Grenell\u2019s comments were his first public remarks in which he discussed his plans as the Kennedy Center\u2019s new leader. His appointment was part of a series of extraordinary actions<\/a> Mr. Trump took to solidify control over the Kennedy Center<\/a>, which has been a bipartisan institution throughout its 54-year history.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump, who stayed away from the Kennedy Center Honors during his first term after some of the artists being honored criticized him, stunned the cultural world when he decided this month to purge the center\u2019s board<\/a> of all Biden appointees and install himself as chairman<\/a>, ousting the financier David M. Rubenstein, the center\u2019s largest donor. The new board fired Deborah F. Rutter<\/a>, the center\u2019s president for more than a decade, and the post was given to Mr. Grenell, a Trump loyalist who was ambassador to Germany during the president\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n Mr. Grenell took aim at Ms. Rutter on Friday, suggesting that she was paid too much and that she had left the center in poor financial health. (Ms. Rutter\u2019s compensation in the fiscal year ending in September 2023 was about $1.4 million, according to public tax records<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The Politico journalist Dasha Burns, who was interviewing Mr. Grenell onstage at the conference on Friday, asked how much he would get paid in the role.<\/p>\n \u201cWay way way less,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n Ms. Rutter, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment.<\/p>\n The Kennedy Center is a public-private partnership<\/a> that gets only a small portion of its $268 million budget \u2014 about $43 million, or 16 percent \u2014 from the federal government. That subsidy is not spent on programming but is earmarked for operations, maintenance and repairs of the property, which is federally owned and is considered a memorial to John F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Grenell cited that federal aid when discussing Mr. Trump\u2019s plans for the center. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to take public money, then you get to have public input,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr. Grenell also said that contrary to some media reports, the decision to cancel a concert in May featuring the Gay Men\u2019s Chorus of Washington, D.C., had been made before he and Mr. Trump took control of the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n When Ms. Burns asked Mr. Grenell whether he would still welcome the Gay Men\u2019s Chorus at the center, he did not respond directly. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to take public money, you have to prove that you actually can bring in revenue,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have any money.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Mr. Trump took over the center, Issa Rae canceled an engagement there<\/a> and some prominent artists resigned their positions as advisers there, including the star soprano Ren\u00e9e Fleming and the singer and songwriter Ben Folds.<\/p>\n Mr. Grenell maintained that the Kennedy Center would have no trouble attracting big-name artists. \u201cWe already have them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Asked why Mr. Trump chose him for the job, Mr. Grenell described himself as a culture aficionado who appreciates \u201ca whole bunch of different styles of art.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And when he was asked what he thought the ideal performance at the Kennedy Center would be, he said: \u201cDolly Parton.\u201d (Ms. Parton was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2006<\/a>.)<\/p>\n He described his vision for the Kennedy Center in familiar terms: \u201cWe want to make art great again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n