Kennedy Center guts social impact team; more layoffs expected

The Kennedy Center on Tuesday terminated at least five members of its small social impact team, including its artistic director Marc Bamuthi Joseph, according to multiple staff members with direct knowledge of the firings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

The team’s focus was reaching new and diverse audiences beyond those who regularly attend symphony and opera performances, and “to advance justice and equity” through art, according to its website.

These programs take many forms, such as an effort to commission new works by Black composers and librettists from across the nation, along with other projects.

Recent performances include “Traumedy,” a stand-up show in which comedians discuss their personal struggles, followed by a question-and-answer session with the comedians and mental health therapists. “Poetry & Art as Liberation: Stories of Hope and Resilience in the Prison System” featured poetry and visual art from formerly incarcerated artists. “The Cartography Project” seeks to “encourage meaningful dialogue about the future of anti-racism” through classical music.

Kennedy Center staffers were told that this is part of an overall reduction in workforce and that more layoffs are forthcoming, though they received no further details.

The reason for the terminations is unclear. Roma Daravi, the center’s head of public relations, did not respond to the Washington Post’s request for comment.

It is the center’s first major reduction in workforce since President Donald Trump last month ousted Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter and Chairman David M. Rubenstein, along with all Biden-appointed members of the board of trustees, which he then replaced with his own, who voted him in as chair.

The new leadership promptly fired three other staff members, including its previous head of public relations, general counsel and a vice president who worked in development. Since then, at least 10 staffers have resigned.

New leadership also directed the programming team to “shut down all social impact programming,” according to a staffer with knowledge of the conversation. The directive left the staff confounded, because the social impact team touched on much of the center’s programming, including the free shows on Millennium Stage.

One Kennedy Center staffer felt flabbergasted and suggested the new leadership doesn’t understand how the organization works, since shutting down social impact programming would affect a broad swath of events.

The social impact team produces its own programming and consults throughout the center on programming. It also runs the Millennium Stage, which hosts free performances four nights a week and free weekly movie screenings.

The members that remain all work directly with the Millennium Stage.

The social impact team grew out of the Millennium Stage, which offered comedy, jazz, hip-hop and other performances, making it the Kennedy Center’s primary lever for lowering barriers of entry and reaching beyond its traditional audiences.

However, despite the diverse programming and gratis entry, getting to the Kennedy Center for a 6 p.m. performance was still a challenge. In 2019, after the Kennedy Center opened the Reach – the $250 million campus expansion recently disparaged by Trump – the cultural center expanded its Millennium Stage division and gave it a broader mission.

The idea was to use the new architecture to develop a “culture of invitation,” according to one social impact staffer who was fired on Tuesday, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to violate a non-disparagement agreement with the center.

“There have been hyperlocal impacts and also really broad impacts,” said the former staffer. “Our trajectory was extraordinarily positive.”

It is unclear whether the social impact team is being fully dissolved.

The Trump administration has had impacts on other arts organizations in Washington, including the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, which shuttered their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices following an executive order signed by Trump that clamped down on DEI programs across the federal government.

Last year, the Kennedy Center program received permanent funding: an $8 million endowment from Shelley and Allan Holt.

“This was a program that was paying for itself, expanding audience, creating new levels of belonging and confidence and communities, across the cultural landscape of D.C. and beyond,” said the former social impact staffer, who had direct knowledge of the unit’s funding and resources.

The dismissals come two days after the center’s first major event under new leadership, the Mark Twain Prize, which was given to comedian Conan O’Brien.

During his speech, O’Brien gave “a special thanks to all the beautiful people who have worked here at the Kennedy Center for years and who are worried about what the future might bring. My eternal thanks for their selfless devotion to the arts.”

The audience gave them a standing ovation.