The Kennedy Center belongs to the American people. That’s why Hands Off the Arts, Pack the House Purple and the Kennedy Center United Arts Workers organizing committee have been fighting to highlight the corruption, attacks on unions and censorship of arts and artists through on-stage actions by brave artists, artist-led community protests, and Congressional advocacy.
These groups stand firmly against Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center and any attempt to rename it. The executive branch has no role in censoring or curating art at the nation’s premier performing arts institution, nor does any president have the right to treat a presidential memorial like a personal brand. The Kennedy Center belongs to the American people — no one else.
Hands Off the Arts have galvanized a movement that has allies across DC, the arts community, labor, the LGBTQIA+ community, and concerned Americans everywhere. Since the takeover, the Hands Off the Arts movement has been mobilizing Americans of every stripe to stand in resistance to this government overreach. If you want your voice heard, join now at HandsOffTheArts.org.
Hands Off the Arts will gather a protest on Saturday, December 20 at 10 AM to demand the renaming of the Kennedy Center be stopped immediately. Confirmed speakers include Senator Chris Van Hollen and drag artist Tara Hoot. Sign up to join the fight and get the details. It is long past time for President Trump to keep his Hands Off the Arts. Now is the moment to rise up and defend the Kennedy Center from this naked act of government interference.
President Kennedy understood the arts as essential to American democracy and sought to build institutions that nurtured their growth as part of the nation’s civic fabric. Today Kennedy’s legacy is directly threatened — not only symbolically, but through actions that undermine the very values Kennedy championed.
Designated by Congress as a living presidential memorial to President John F. Kennedy, the Center’s name cannot be changed at the whim of a single chairman — no matter how powerful. Just as the Lincoln Memorial cannot be unilaterally renamed by an executive, only Congress has the authority to alter the Kennedy Center’s name.
Thursday’s actions represent the culmination of a ten-month assault on the Kennedy Center. The President and his allies have degraded it through union-busting and arts censorship. Leadership has presided over severe ticket revenue shortfalls and drawn congressional scrutiny for alleged self-dealing, corruption, and fiscal misconduct that has caused the United States Senate to open investigations.
Hands Off the Arts is a coalition organizing in solidarity with the artists and workers who are fighting to keep our stages, screens and galleries free — free from government control, censorship, and the erasure of whole cultures from view. They seek to rally the DMV arts community to stand up to, stop, and finally reverse the trend of partisan interference in the arts. Hands Off the Arts are arts workers and patrons, unionists, LGBTQIA+ activists, and free speech advocates.
