Welcome to the Kennedy Center
"I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit."-President John F. Kennedy
President Kennedy’s words resonate more strongly than ever for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the 21st century. The Center, which opened on September 8, 1971, continues its efforts to fulfill President Kennedy's vision by producing and presenting an unmatched variety of theater and musicals, dance and ballet, orchestral, chamber, jazz, popular, world, and folk music, and multi-media performances for all ages. Every year the institution that bears President Kennedy's name brings his dream to fruition, touching the lives of millions of people through thousands of performances by the greatest artists from across America and around the world. The Center also nurtures new works and young artists, creating performances, broadcasts, and touring productions while serving the nation as a leader in arts education.
The Kennedy Center, located on 17 acres overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., is America’s living memorial to President Kennedy as well as the nation’s busiest arts facility. Touring Kennedy Center productions and its television, radio, and Internet broadcasts reach millions around the world. As part of the Kennedy Center’s Performing Arts for Everyone program, more than 400 free performances are offered each year featuring international, national and local artists. These include daily 6 p.m. concerts on the Millennium Stage – which will celebrate its 13th anniversary this season – performances during the annual Open House Arts Festival, and concerts of seasonal music in December as part of the Kennedy Center Holiday Celebration. The Millennium Stage performances are broadcast live over the Internet and digitally archived on the Kennedy Center Web site.
World premiere performances of Kennedy Center works have been offered through a commissioning program for new ballet and dance works. These works have been created by America's foremost choreographers – Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, and Merce Cunningham – for leading American dance companies including American Ballet Theatre, Ballet West, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and the San Francisco Ballet. Since 1999, the Kennedy Center has supported and produced The Suzanne Farrell Ballet in performances at the Center and on extended tours.
The Kennedy Center has also co-produced new operas such as John Adams' Nixon in China, and brought such international opera companies as La Scala in its first ever visit to the United States, and Deutsche Opera Berlin in a complete "Ring" cycle. The Center is presenting the Mariinsky Opera and Ballet in annual performances over ten years.
The Kennedy Center presents festivals celebrating cities, countries and regions of the world, including the San Francisco and Texas festivals, France Danse, Festival Australia, the Arts of Japan, the Kennedy Center African Odyssey, Art of the State: Israel at 50, Island: Arts from Ireland, UK/KC, celebrating the arts of the United Kingdom, the Tchaikovsky Festival and the French Festival, and AmericArtes, celebrating the arts of the Americas. A six-month celebration of the American arts of the 1940s entitled “A New America: The 1940s and the Arts” filled the Center’s theaters. The Center created a month-long salute to the traditional and contemporary arts of China followed by America’s Country Music, a highly praised three-week festival. Other festivals include a six-month, citywide celebration Shakespeare in Washington, an exploration of the culture of Japan entitled JAPAN! culture + hyperculture, andthe Kennedy Center Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival, an annual event entering its 15th year. The 2008-09 season saw an exploration of the culture of the 22 Arab nations entitled Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World which received international attention and acclaim.
The Center has co-produced more than 300 new works of theater over the past 38 years, including Tony-winning shows ranging from Annie in 1977 to A Few Good Men, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The King and I, Titanic, and the American premiere of Les Misérables. In 2002 the Center presented the unprecedented, astonishingly successful, summer-long Sondheim Celebration, featuring new Kennedy Center productions of Sweeney Todd, Company, Sunday in the Park with George, Merrily We Roll Along, Passion, and A Little Night Music. In Spring 2004, the Center produced three Tennessee Williams classics, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie. Other recent Center productions include Mame, Carnival!, August Wilson’s 20th Century – the playwright’s complete ten-play cycle performed as fully staged readings – and a major revival production of Ragtime which will transfer to Broadway in October 2009.
The National Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center's artistic affiliate since 1987, has commissioned dozens of new works, among them Stephen Albert's RiverRun, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music; Morton Gould’s StringMusic, also a Pulitzer Prize-winner; William Bolcolm's Sixth Symphony, and most recently, Daniel Kellogg’s Western Skies.
In addition to its regular season concerts, The National Symphony Orchestra presents a diverse education program, chamber concerts and a Pops series led by Marvin Hamlisch. The annual American Residencies for the Kennedy Center is a program unique to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Center. The Center sends the Orchestra to a different state each year for an intensive period of performances and teaching encompassing full orchestral, chamber, and solo concerts, master classes and other teaching sessions. Past NSO residencies include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wyoming.
The Center reaches millions of people every year through its television programs. These include Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Kennedy Center Honors, broadcast annually on the CBS network, and The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, broadcast on PBS.
In recent years the Kennedy Center has dramatically expanded its education programs to reach young people, teachers, and families throughout the nation. A clear sign of the Center’s commitment to the arts for young people and families is the Family Theater, which opened in 2005. This state-of-the-art, totally accessible theater of 320 seats presents performances for young people. Each year more than 17 million people nationwide take part in innovative and effective education programs initiated by the Center, including performances, lecture/demonstrations, open rehearsals, dance and music residencies, master classes, competitions for young actors and musicians, backstage tours, and workshops for teachers. These programs have become models for communities across the country. Since its establishment in 1969, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival has reached more than 17.5 million theatergoers, students, and teachers nationwide. The Center sponsors two annual dance residency programs for young people; Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell and the Dance Theatre of Harlem Residency Program, both now in their second decade, as well as the annual residency of Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead.
Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser founded the Kennedy Center Institute for Arts Management, which encompasses a variety of programs to train the arts managers of the future. These programs include a Capacity Building Program for Culturally Specific Performing Arts Organizations which works with institutions of color across the country to help improve their fundraising, marketing and administrative efforts. The Center also has a similar program working with institutions from New York City and the Metro Washington, D.C. area. Mr. Kaiser advises performing arts organizations around the world on building institutional strength through marketing, strategic planning and fundraising, and, in this capacity, is currently working with arts leaders in over 60 nations, including China, Egypt, Israel, Mexico, Romania, and South Africa. The Center has a 10-month long arts management program for mid-level arts managers which includes extensive coursework in contemporary business practices and practical management experience through the lens of planning, presenting and producing performing arts programming. A shorter summer program, designed for International arts managers, has completed its second year.
In February 2009, the Kennedy Center launched Arts in Crisis in response to the emergency facing performing arts organizations. The program, open to non-profit 501(c)(3) performing arts organizations, provides free and confidential planning assistance in areas pertinent to maintaining a vital performing arts organization during a troubled economy. The Center is currently working with more than 400 organizations across the country with the help of more than 100 volunteer mentors. Throughout the 2009-2010 season, Mr. Kaiser will continue to lead arts community conversations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.
As part of its commitment to encourage the widest possible audience for the arts, the Kennedy Center offers the nation’s largest Specially Priced Tickets program for students, seniors, persons with disabilities, enlisted military personnel and others with fixed low incomes. The Center also has been in the forefront of making the performing arts accessible to persons with disabilities, highlighted by its affiliation with VSA arts, with which it shares programs and resources. The Center has renovated three of its main theaters, the Concert Hall, Opera House and Eisenhower Theater, and these venues, along with the new Family Theater, are now national models for public accommodation.
