Kennedy Center will be ‘prosperous again,’ says Grenell

The interim director of the Kennedy Center, Richard Grenell, is developing a “common sense” plan to change the finances of the center and make it “prosperous again”, since it dealt with $ 72 million of debt due to past leadership decisions.

“The Kennedy Center is the main arts institution in the United States,” Grenell told Fox News Digital. “It deserves to have the total support of the public and a general balance that is solid.”

Familiar sources with the current finances of the Kennedy center told Fox News Digital that he had been “budgeting to lose money.”

But Grenell brought a new financial director, Donna Arduin, who has the task of improving what has described as a “serious situation.”

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“The previous business plan of the Kennedy center was made to leave the center in red and did it,” Arduin told Fox News Digital. “The previous leadership had no choice but to pay employee salaries with money that are supposed to be assigned for debt reserves.”

Arduin told Fox News Digital that “gross poor management created a serious situation that we were surprised to discover.”

In fiscal year 2025, the Kennedy center is operating with a budget of $ 234 million. In addition, in fiscal year 2015, the Kennedy center had an operational deficit of $ 105.2 million, which left a fund deficit of $ 7.2 million dollars.

The sources familiar with the numbers told Fox News Digital that the gap was full of dollars of fundraising of the Kennedy Center: $ 91 million of the annual fundraising and $ 7 million of the profits in the endowments.

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The familiar sources with the plans of the leadership team told Fox News Digital that the plan will focus on getting rid of the debt, improving the sale of tickets and the collection of funds, and growing the endowments of the center.

A source explained that the team will use the place for profitable commercial events that are not traditional programs and actions and will begin to offer alternative programming.

“There are many opportunities and we are chasing them all,” said the source.

The Kennedy center has two affiliates: the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. The new leadership team is currently working on business plans with its affiliates to ensure that the Kennedy center has greater endowments and “greater sustainability.”

Official endowments combined a total of only $ 163 million, what New Leadership told Fox News Digital “is not suitable for the size of this institution.”

Under the last leadership team, the Kennedy center built “The Reach”, an intimate theater in the Kennedy center that organized concerts, comedy shows and poetry readings. It also has a restaurant.

But familiar sources with Financials told Fox News Digital that the old leadership obtained a large part of the debt to build the place, which cost the center of almost $ 200 million.

“There was no profitability plan for that,” the source explained, and said that until now, the space has been “underutilized”, bringing only $ 2 million per year.

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“The main institution of United States arts deserves better,” said Arduin. “The new team has already written a responsible budget that will make us prosper again.”

She added: “We are using common sense.”

President Trump in January dismissed the board of directors of the theater and announced that there were been elected president of the Board for its new selected board.

The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told the Wall Street Journal in January: “The Kennedy center learned by the bad ones that if it will wake up, you will go bankrupt. Everyone can enjoy the arts with the arts of the great history and tradition of great history and tradition.

Some groups that did not agree with the measure decided Cancel shows In the center.

Producers of Broadway “Hamilton” He took out a planned race there next year.

“Our program simply cannot, in good awareness, participate and be part of this new culture that is imposed on the Kennedy center,” said producer Jeffrey Seller earlier this month.

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The show was held at the Kennedy center during Trump’s first mandate in office.

Grenelll told Sean Hannity earlier this month that “all are welcome” at the Kennedy center.

“Look, the reality is that the Kennedy center is open for business for all,” Grenell told Hannity. “We just want an arts center that celebrates the arts, we want art of common sense.”