The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees on Tuesday voted to immediately close the lauded arts institution’s main building, according to multiple media outlets. Hours before the vote, a district court ruled against the Board’s latest effort to add President Donald Trump’s name back to the building—this time, in recognition of his purported role in the planned renovations. The closure decision also came one day after leadership claimed that the cultural center was on the brink of bankruptcy.
The Board’s vote was informed, in part, by a 57-page packet provided Monday as preparatory material for their meeting. It claimed that keeping the main building open endangered both visitors and staff of the institution, according to the Washington Post. Read More: All the Things Trump Has Put His Name and Face on as President The packet included a two-page memorandum from Executive Director Matt Floca, who was installed by Trump in March.
According to the Post, the letter points to an incident on Sept. 4 wherein a chunk of the ceiling in the grand foyer fell after heavy rains, spreading debris in front of the Concert Hall. A copy of the resolution to close the building was also filed in court Monday as part of ongoing litigation to keep Trump’s name off the front portico. It said that the Virginia-based firm Delta Consulting Group performed an independent assessment in August and found that the Kennedy Center was in an escalating state of disrepair.
The claim, however, has been disputed by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex officio Kennedy Center Board member who first brought a lawsuit against Trump for his attempted rebrand in December 2025 and subsequently challenged multiple prior motions to close the Center. Beatty’s lawyers argued that Delta Consulting Group had “expressly disclaimed providing any such opinion.” TIME has reached out to both Beatty’s counsel and the Delta Consulting Group for comment.
When asked about the closure, a Kennedy Center spokesperson pointed TIME to a statement given by Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s Vice President of Public Relations, in the aftermath of the falling ceiling plaster incident. She called the incident “another example of the urgent need to close for renovation and revitalization.” “This structural failure stems from decades of neglect and deferred maintenance by the previous leadership, and there’s no justification for further delays in restoring America’s cultural center,” Daravi said at the time. The closure is just the latest episode in the Trump-related turmoil that has afflicted the storied arts center located on the banks of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
After President Donald Trump returned to the White House, he promptly staged a takeover at what had formerly been a nonpartisan institution. In February 2025, he dismissed all Board members appointed by former President Joe Biden and replaced them with his own appointees. The newly formed Board then unanimously named him its Chairman.
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