Kennedy Center renews call for Trump-backed shutdown after part of a ceiling collapses

WASHINGTON (AP) — A chunk of ceiling fell inside a main hallway of the Kennedy Center, according to a spokesperson who said the damage underscores the need to shut down the historic arts venue for renovations sought by President Donald Trump.

No one was injured when a piece of the ceiling inside the Kennedy Center’s grand foyer collapsed Friday evening, said Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president for public relations.

Photos provided by the center showed a large hole in the high ceiling and debris littering the red carpet in part of the hallway that connects the Kennedy Center’s three main performance auditoriums. The damage occurred during stormy weather in Washington.

The Kennedy Center’s Trump-aligned board is fighting in court to move forward with plans to add Trump’s name to the building’s facade and to close the center for two years as it undergoes $250 million in renovations.

Daravi called the partial ceiling collapse Friday “another example of the urgent need to close for renovation and revitalization, as our Chairman President Trump has championed.”

“This structural failure stems from decades of neglect and deferred maintenance by the previous leadership, and there’s no justification for further delays in restoring America’s cultural center,” Daravi said in a statement.

Trump’s efforts to add his name and make other big changes to the center established to honor President John F. Kennedy following his assassination are just part of Trump’s broader second-term agenda to reshape Washington.

Trump already has demolished the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom. He also plans a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and a renovated golf course along the Potomac River.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that Trump’s name had been added to the Kennedy Center illegally and ordered that it be taken down. He also blocked the administration from closing the venue for renovations.

Now before the judge is an August vote by the Kennedy Center’s board to return Trump’s name to the facade so reads: “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” Justice Department lawyers have argued donations for renovations will dry up without Trump’s name on the building.

Other changes have moved forward. Last week, the Kennedy Center took down a large stick figure sculpture known as Blue that had stood outside the center in 2019. The Kennedy Center gave no reason for its removal, but said in a statement “we are honored to have been stewards” of the late sculptor Joel Shapiro’s work.

Grace Terpstra of Keep the KC, a community group fighting the Kennedy Center’s closure, said she suspects the board will seize on what appears to be limited ceiling damage “to make the point that the whole thing needs to be shut down, that it’s going to fall on everybody.”

“I think they’ll try to make it into a bigger thing and show that they’ve found a lot of other things,” said Terpstra, the group’s founder.

___ Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.