A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For more on a potential temporary closure of the Kennedy Center, I'm joined by Anne Midgette. She's a writer and art critic, and she previously was the chief classical music critic at The Washington Post. So, Anne, what would a closure, even a temporary closure, mean for arts in D.C.?
ANNE MIDGETTE: Well, there's never been a temporary closure of this length of time. The burning question is what happens to the National Symphony Orchestra, which is an organization that is bound to the Kennedy Center and can't leave and has been suffering a lot, obviously, under the Trump name being put on the center. Whether the orchestra can find an adequate place to perform again for those two years and how it will manage that is really up in the air, and all the more so since I believe many of the orchestra officials learned about this through the same newscast or the same Truth Social post that the rest of us did.
MARTÍNEZ: Anne, is there any guarantee that you're aware of that they'll be back once the renovation is completed?
MIDGETTE: Well, the question is whether they can survive.
MARTÍNEZ: OK.
MIDGETTE: I do believe the administration wants to have an orchestra. I think that is part of the vision for the center. Unlike the opera, which the administration seemed happy to do without, the orchestra is really a kingpin. They perform 150 performances a year, so it would be a big hole if they left.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Anne, you've spent a lot of time at the Kennedy Center. Is it in need of a face-lift?
MIDGETTE: Yes. I would say yes. I have heard detractors maintaining that everything has been beautiful and spectacular there, but the building was built in 1971. It's had a few renovations, but, yes, there's some infrastructural issues and some creakiness, and I don't think anybody who's worked there would deny that it could use a little sprucing up. Whether it needs something as dramatic as a two-year shutdown is very much open to question, particularly 'cause we don't know the nature of the renovations that will be undertaken.
If it does involve rebuilding the concert halls, for example, is there going to be any guarantee that these halls will be optimized for the kind of classical performance that have been in them? Building a hall for an orchestra to play in is not as simple as just putting walls around a space and sticking a bunch of chairs in there. There's a lot of considerations that have to be dealt with, and it's an open question whether those considerations are even going to be considered.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, and sometimes renovations go in stages, not all at once, you know.
MIDGETTE: Exactly.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
MIDGETTE: Exactly. And for a big center like this, that would be the norm.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, as we've been reporting, artists have canceled performances there. Members have canceled subscriptions. General public has stayed away. You think this is more than just a renovation, based on what you know?
MIDGETTE: I have no inside information, obviously...
MARTÍNEZ: OK.
MIDGETTE: ...Since I was blindsided by this as well, but I do think, in a sense, it stops the bleeding. It has been very painful for the orchestra in particular. There's been a big movement to, you know, hate the administration but keep supporting the orchestra because it's certainly not the artists' faults. And there's even an argument that attending has been a form of resistance, but that argument has not gained a lot of traction with the larger public, so the orchestra's been playing to smaller and smaller audiences. And, of course, a closure kind of gives a hard reset on all of that, but depends who will come back when it's done.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, that's right. That's a writer and arts critic Anne Midgette. Thank you very much.
MIDGETTE: Thanks for having me.
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