The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts announced Friday that the Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony will no longer be held at the center this year for the first time in the event’s nearly 50-year history.
With the main building currently closed to the public and a safety review ongoing, the center announced plans to move the Celebration of the American Performing Arts to Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., which seats about 20,000 people, instead of the 2,300-seat awards ceremony that traditionally takes place in the center’s Opera House.
This year’s awards ceremony is scheduled for December 7. The center said they will announce this year’s winners at a later date.
Even the 2020 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, which was postponed in May 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, included performances taped over several days at various locations on the Kennedy Center campus.
The change of location for the legendary event comes as the Kennedy Center’s main theater has been closed since Sept. 15, after the center’s board of directors voted to close for renovations. In court documents, executive director Matt Floca explained that the closure will be reconsidered weekly based on the status of ongoing safety assessments.
The Kennedy Center’s board of directors cited the collapse of part of the ceiling in the center’s lobby last month as evidence that the center needed to close immediately for repairs.
An architectural consultant and the center’s director “have concluded that the main building is unsafe for continued use and further risks to the public and staff are expected if the building is not immediately closed and renovations begin,” the council said in a draft resolution that would close the center for two years while it is planned to be built.
But President Donald Trump has previously said renovations will not proceed unless his name is added to the building, and the building may even be demolished. As litigation raged over closing and renaming the center, a federal judge repeatedly blocked the move.
“The closure will proceed immediately, however, the renovation and reconstruction is a very large and complex undertaking that cannot begin until the D.C. Circuit Court rules on the board-approved name,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in September. “If this ruling is negative, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the United States Supreme Court, then the reconstruction and renovation of the Kennedy Center will not proceed.”
The White House declined to comment to NBC News on the change in location for the annual awards ceremony.