Kennedy Center facing financial straits, difficult choices – and a judge who wants it to stay open

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s name has been removed from the facade of the Kennedy Center, but inside the renowned performing arts venue, a difficult financial picture is forcing tough choices.

A federal judge is demanding the center continue to operate during renovations. But plummeting ticket sales, artist withdrawals, political controversies and a diminished staff have made restarting a full-scale programming schedule a challenge, multiple sources familiar with the operation told CNN.

The historic arts center on Friday asked the judge for more time to comply with deadlines in an ongoing lawsuit as its board explores avenues for renovation.

The center is considering three paths forward but needs more time to figure out what path it will take, Justice Department attorneys representing the center wrote in a Friday night court filing.

The first option would be to close the center, as planned, while renovations take place, according to the filing. The second would be to put on limited events at the center in areas not affected by the renovations, and the third would be to close the center periodically to address serious repairs while “maintaining a full slate of programming.”

Leaders at the center expect to present the three options to Trump’s hand-picked board of trustees for a vote in mid-July, the filing said.

DOJ lawyers for the center said they’ll defer “long-term programming and staffing adjustments” until a path forward is decided.

Kennedy Center leadership was required to tell the court by Friday night what steps it has taken to comply with the judge’s order for it to maintain “public access and ongoing programming.”

“They are really in a major, major crisis” that has left its leadership “gasping for air,” said a source who was briefed on the options. “Keeping the lights on – that is by far the number one thing that they’re going to have a major, major issue with.”

Before the Friday night court filing, the Kennedy Center broadly disputed CNN’s reporting on the venue’s financial difficulties but didn’t respond to a request for comment on closure plans or address other specific questions. A spokesperson said that the board was expected to review budgets at a forthcoming meeting.

The White House declined to comment.

The center’s planned closure has been indefinitely blocked by US District Judge Casey Cooper in Washington, DC, who ruled last month that its board had unlawfully voted in favor of the shutdown plans. If the Kennedy Center closed completely, Cooper ruled, it would not be able to carry out its congressionally mandated activities.

Matt Floca, head of the Kennedy Center, previously testified that funding issues didn’t factor into his recommendation to shut down the venue during the planned renovations.

“My decision was focused on the needs of the building,” he said at the time.

“The center can support itself in a – you know, in an empty,” he said, trailing off. Money was “not a factor in deciding to do what we need to do,” he said.

Cooper also voided a decision by the board, stacked with Trump allies and chaired by Trump, to rename the venue in honor of the current president by appending his name to it.

The center recently complied with the mandate to remove Trump’s name from the building, but large striped tarps still cover where the metal letters marking his name were previously installed.

Attorneys for Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio board trustee who sued to stop the name change, took issue with the large tarp. In the Friday night filing, attorneys for the Ohio Democrat called the tarp a “petty act of defiance.”

Sparse events on calendar

The center currently lists scant events on its calendar – outdoor movie screenings of “Superman,” “The Princess Diaries” and “Clue”; a performance for children by the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute; and a weekend art studio for children.

But recovering programming at the Broadway level, one former staffer said, is “unlikely to turn around on a dime,” because touring companies book far in advance, and many agents have declined to book acts at the Kennedy Center under its current leadership.

One potential solution to placate the court’s request, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN, could involve engaging the National Symphony Orchestra for multiple performances every week.

The NSO has long been housed inside the Kennedy Center, but as of this week, its contract has yet to be renewed. And its budget has yet to be approved for a new season.

“The National Symphony Orchestra has a plan in place, but they haven’t been authorized to move forward with it,” one of the sources said, adding that the board would need to approve that budget to do so.

The sources also suggested that adding small-scale programming at the center’s Millennium Stage could help the center prove it is still offering events to the public.

The challenges have been exacerbated by significant staffing cuts, with layoffs early in Trump’s tenure and continuing this spring under the leadership of Floca, who was appointed to the job in March.

Back then, as the board had weighed the prospect of fully closing, experts in performing arts center management had warned in legal filings about the possibility of significant impacts to future bookings, donors and staff.

They described the challenges that would come from having to cultivate institutional knowledge from specialized staff, losing audiences who form new habits and compromising yearslong relationships with artists.

The Kennedy Center’s remaining employees will have to figure out a plan to fill stages, said Mallory Miller, a former assistant manager of dance programming for the venue and now an activist with the “Hands Off the Arts” organization.

“There’s a complete leadership vacuum,” she told CNN.

“You can’t just call a major ballet company and be like, ‘Get on my stage next week.’ That’s not how that works,” Miller added. “You plan those types of engagements sometimes well over a year in advance, and so for the near-term future, I don’t know what it looks like. It’s all a mess.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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