In a speech delivered at Amherst College on October 26, 1963, President John F Kennedy said:

If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. And as Mr. [Archibald] MacLeish once remarked of poets, there is nothing worse for our trade than to be in style. In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society–in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation.

The Art Newspaper reports:

News of a shakeup at the Kennedy Center came straight from the horse’s mouth, when Trump posted his intentions on Truth Social on 7 February: “At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” he wrote, initially naming himself as future board chair and citing drag shows “specifically targeting our youth” as part of the reason for the takeover. Three days later, again via social media, the president announced that he was appointing Grenell, Trump’s ambassador to Germany during his first term, as “interim executive director”. The Kennedy Center does not have an executive director, causing confusion over the future of its current president, Deborah Rutter—who announced last month that she would be stepping down at the end of 2025.

The Kennedy Center is partially funded by the federal government, and presidents appoint its board of trustees to serve six-year terms, although the board chair is elected by members of the board. All 18 dismissed board members—among them the award-winning musician Jon Batiste—had been appointed by former president Joe Biden; the 17 board members left on the roster were all Trump appointees.