President says he will make Kennedy Center ‘a very special and exciting place’. “We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!”. Soon after, Grey’s Anatomy showrunner and Shondaland CEO Shonda Rhimes resigned as treasurer to the board. The Independent has reached out to Rhimes’s representatives for comment. Singer-songwriter Ben Folds resigned as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra, a position he had been appointed to in 2017.
“Given the developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I’m resigning as artistic advisor to the NSO. Not for me,” Folds wrote in a statement on Instagram. “It’s been a wonderful 8 years working with Kennedy Center president Deb Rutter, fellow artistic advisor Renee Fleming, NSO artistic administrator Justin Ellis, and the entire NSO staff, encouraging thousands of fresh new audiences to appreciate the symphonic music. Mostly, and above all, I’ll miss the musicians of our nation’s symphony orchestra – just the best!”.
The Kennedy Center, long considered a powerful tool in US cultural diplomacy, oversees both the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. Grammy-winning opera singer and actress Renée Fleming also stepped down as artistic adviser to the centre, writing on Instagram that it had been “a privilege”. She praised former chair David Rubenstein and former president Deborah Rutter as being “an inspiration to me”.
The president has accused the influential national arts complex of being too “woke” and taken issue with recent events featuring performers in drag. “We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center,” Trump told reporters this week. “Some of the shows were terrible, a disgrace that they were even put on,” he added, though he noted he didn’t actually attend any of the events he took issue with.
