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Music|Kennedy Center’s Leader to Step Down, Adding to Uncertainty
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/arts/music/deborah-rutter-leaving-kennedy-center.html
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The announced departure of Deborah F. Rutter, the center’s president since 2014, comes as the center continues to search for a new board chair while navigating a second Trump term.
Jan. 27, 2025, 2:15 p.m. ET
Deborah F. Rutter will step down as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington at the end of the year, the center announced on Monday, in the latest sign of uncertainty at the institution as it navigates President Trump’s second term.
The Kennedy Center had planned to welcome a new board chairman this year, but shortly after the presidential election it announced that it had failed to find a new one and that David M. Rubenstein, who was elected chairman in 2010, would stay on until September 2026.
Ms. Rutter, 68, the center’s president since 2014, guided the organization through the coronavirus pandemic, oversaw an expansion of its campus, added hip-hop and comedy to its offerings and lured the Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda to be music director of the National Symphony Orchestra. She helped keep the Kennedy Center Honors, the popular annual telecast recognizing distinguished American artists, robust during Mr. Trump’s first term, when he broke with precedent and declined to attend after some honorees criticized him.
Ms. Rutter, whose contract is up in August, agreed to stay on through the end of the year to help with the transition. She said in an interview that the center was looking forward to working with Mr. Trump and his administration, noting that half of the center’s board is made up of his appointees. She said that the first lady, Melania Trump, had already personally expressed interest in reconnecting with the center.
“Republicans don’t love the arts more or less than Democrats,” Ms. Rutter said.
Ms. Rutter said that she was leaving because she was ready for a change, and that it was time for a new generation of leaders to “pick up the mantle and move the Kennedy Center forward.”
“I’m not leaving because I’m tired of the Kennedy Center,” she said. “I’m leaving because it’s time for me to think about using my talents in another way, and for the Kennedy Center to have a fresh new vision.”
