The Kennedy Center

A Reason To Smile

Credit: Getty Images

The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, known by millions as The Kennedy Center, is a national treasure. Let’s not lose sight of its decades of work promoting and honoring the performing arts in America. It is this week’s reason to smile.

Conceived as a “living memorial” to President Kennedy, a lover and supporter of the arts, the Center opened in 1971. For 55 years, it has hosted dance performances, concerts, operas, plays, and musicals. It is the home of the National Symphony Orchestra and, until recently, the Washington National Opera. It also provides arts education and outreach locally and nationally.

It is best known for the Kennedy Center Honors, which are awarded annually to five artists for lifetime contributions to American culture and the performing arts. It is one of the most recognizable and coveted national arts prizes.

To date, 263 people or groups have received the honor — choreographers and dancers, singers and songwriters, performers, actors, and directors, in almost every performance genre. Together, they represent nearly every corner of the performing arts, from jazz, classical, pop, rock, and country music to ballet, modern dance, tap, ballroom, theater, comedy, musicals, and opera.

Among the highlights of the televised awards ceremony are the performances by big-name artists honoring their mentors. It was hard to choose just one, but we settled on a knockout performance of a rollicking musical number — Beyoncé’s tribute to 2005 recipient Tina Turner with her version of Turner’s hit, “Proud Mary.”

In case it wasn’t clear before, the Kennedy Center was named for the 35th president, not the 47th. Work crews removed the current president’s name from the facade, which he illegally added last year. It was taken down in the small hours of Saturday morning by court order. A tarp was draped over the scaffolding to block the public’s view. In a sense, the infamously thin-skinned president redacted his removal. Blocking out his name is not unusual for this administration. But rest assured, it is gone.

The legal wrangling over names and artistic direction is a shame that detracts from the Center’s mission of “bringing artists and audiences together through performances, education, and creative experiences that inspire communities across the country.”

Legal courts and the court of public opinion are helping to move the Kennedy Center back to its core values: the arts.

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Stay Steady,

Dan