Kennedy Center leaders resign and increase uncertainty

Deborah F. Rutter resigns at the end of the year as President of John F. Keneda Center in Washington. The center announced on Monday with the latest signs of uncertainty in an institution that navigates Trump's second President Trump. semester.

Kennedy Center plans to welcome a new chairman this year, but he could not find a new one immediately after the presidential election, and the David M. Rubenstein, selected in 2010, will stay until September. Was announced. 2026.

Since 2014, Rutter (68), the president of the center, has derived the organization through Coronavirus pandemic, supervises the expansion of the campus, adds hip -hop and comedy to its offerings, and the Italian conductor Jean -end. I invited Rare Nokka to the national music director. Symphony orchestra. She helped to maintain the honor of Kennedy Center, a popular television broadcast that recognizes a renowned American artist during the first term of Trump.

Lutter, who had a contract in August, agreed to stay until the end of the year to support the transition. She said in an interview that the center was looking forward to cooperating with Mr. Trump and his administration, and pointed out that half of the center board was composed of his appointment. She said that First Lady Melania Trump has already expressed his interest in reunion with the center.

“Republican members don't love the art more or less than the Democratic Party,” Lata said.

Lutter said she was ready for the change, and she said that she had left, and that the new generation leader was “picking up the mantle and moving forward in Kennedy Center.”

“I'm tired of the Kennedy Center, so I won't leave,” she said. “It's time for me to leave, think about using talent in another way, and think that the Kennedy Center has a fresh new vision.”

The new administration has already influenced art. Last week, Washington's National Museum of Art announced that Trump's presidential order ends its diversity, fairness, and inclusion programs to call such an initiative “illegal and immoral.”

According to Rutter, Kennedy Center has no formal diversity, fairness or comprehensive programs. However, the center is promoting commitment to “diversity, fairness, package, accessibility, belonging”. And the social beliefs that were rising in 2021 explain the purpose of the center, “enhancing and supporting the voices of underestimated people who have been alienated and underestimated.

Lutter said that the center would review the language used to explain diversity's efforts in light of the presidential decree.

The center is still waiting for the new administration's art policy. In his first term, Trump suggested to eliminate the national fund of art, but it survived and grew further for parliamentary support in Congress.

During her in office, Lutter, a veteran arts manager who had previously led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, supervised the Kennedy Center's first expansion in the 54 -year history.

The offerings at the center, which operate the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra, have grown in Rutter's era. Genres such as comedy and hip -hop are lined up with classical music, ballet and theaters. The center budget was $ 268 million last year, compared to $ 223 million in 2015.

Lutter was steering during pandemics when the center canceled hundreds of events and lost millions of tickets. She supervised the start of major fundraising in 2023 in the 2023, aiming to reinforce a donation of about $ 163 million compared to about $ 113 million in 2014.

Lubenstein, who extended his term as chairman of the Board, said that he was optimistic about the center of the center for Lutter's powerful leadership.

“It will be difficult to find someone with all her skills,” said Rubenstein, a co -founder and co -chair of the Carllyl Group, a private equity company. “It's a difficult act to follow.”

Darenwalker, the president of the Ford Foundation, which supports the center program, praised Lutter for expanding the reach of the Kennedy Center.

“Kennedy Center has become even more effective in fulfilling its mission because it has become diverse. This is about outstanding,” he said.

Lutter added that she didn't know what to do next, and had no imagination to lead another large cultural organization. She said that her successor needed to find a way to make the Kenedi Center a place to connect Americans in the era of polarization.

“Art should be a unified aspect of our society,” she said. “This is our mission. How much support can people in our country really find each other?”