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Kennedy Center Honors to Continue Despite Closure of Venue
The annual event will also be named The Trump Kennedy Center Honors.
March 02, 2026 By Diep Tran
Last month, President Trump announced that the Kennedy Center will be shut down for two years in order to conduct what he called, "Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding."
Despite the closure, Kennedy Center officials have announced that the annual Kennedy Center Honors will continue, albeit in an outside, smaller venue, and with a new name. The event will now be called The Trump Kennedy Center Honors.
In an interview with Washington, D.C. radio station WTOP, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell said that "the location is yet to be determined. We're already looking for different places. It will definitely go forward. It will probably just be in a smaller venue, which just means ticket demand will be even higher." He also confirmed the renaming of the program, which mirrors the Kennedy Center's board recent move to rename the performing arts institution the Trump-Kennedy Center.
Grenell also said that the $257-million renovations will begin July 6 and that the current leadership does not plan to demolish the Kennedy Center. Funding for the renovations was allocated last year as part of the "One Big Beautiful Bill"—much more than the institution had previously received.
In a February news conference, Trump said the center was "dangerous" and "dilapidated" and that, "I'm not ripping it out. I'll be using the steel, so we're using the structure, we're using some of the marble...when it opens it'll be brand-new and very beautiful."
This announcement comes after Trump hosted the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors late last year, which was the lowest-rated broadcast in the history of the program.
Ever since Trump took over the institution last year, firing board members and its former leadership and appointing his own loyalists, there have been mass layoffs and artists have cancelled their engagements at the Center en masse. Most recently, the San Francisco Ballet pulled out of a five-performance engagement at the Center. Other entities who are no longer performing there include composer Philip Glass (who canceled the world premiere of his Symphony No. 15, a tribute to Abraham Lincoln), the Washington National Opera (who have announced they will no longer be in residence at the Center), and the national tour of Hamilton. In January, the Center hired Kevin Couch, as its senior vice president of artistic programming; Couch resigned less than two weeks after he was announced.
As a result of all this turmoil, ticket sales at the Center have fallen.
Though Trump's name has now been affixed to the wall of the center, members of Congress have decried the renaming, calling it illegal. An official renaming of federally funded institution requires Congressional approval. The web domain for the center renames Kennedy-Center.org.
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