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Overview:

A world-renowned art facility that sits on 17 acres of land overlooking the Potomac River, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents more than 2,000 performances a year, including a variety of theater, dance, music, and multimedia programs. The events attract almost 2 million visitors annually. The Center also takes some of the shows on the road. In addition, it offers several artistic learning experiences tailored specifically for young people, including open rehearsals, competitions, and music and dance study residencies.

History:

The creation of an arts center in Washington D.C. had been a dream of many for nearly two centuries when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1958 that established a National Cultural Center in the District of Columbia. The National Cultural Center Act authorized its construction, and mandated it to present a wide variety of classical and contemporary performances and carry out an educational mission as an independent, self-sustaining, private funded facility. Fundraising for the Center began shortly after the bill was passed, with John F. Kennedy, a life-long advocate of the arts, significantly involved in calling attention to the project and its funding needs in a variety of ways when he became President, including naming his wife, Jackie, and President Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie, honorary chairwomen of the fundraising campaign. Two months after the assassination of President Kennedy, Congress designated the National Cultural Center a “living memorial” to him, and authorized $23 million to help build the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. President Lyndon Johnson signed the John F. Kennedy Center Act on January 23, 1964, and on December 2, 1964, shoveled the first dirt at the site, with the same gold-plated spade that had been used in the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Lincoln Memorial in 1914 and the Jefferson Memorial in 1938. After legal haggling over the Center’s precise site location and various other topics were ironed out, construction got underway in 1967, with $34.5 million in private contributions, $23 million in federal matching funds, and $20.4 million in long-term revenue bonds held by the U.S. Department of Treasury. On September 8, 1971, the Center opened to the public, with a gala performance featuring the world premiere of a requiem mass honoring President Kennedy, commissioned from Leonard Bernstein.

What it Does:

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts houses nine stages, five public galleries, two public restaurants, and nine special event rooms. It puts on a variety of shows, including many Broadway hits and Tony Award-winning theatrical productions, and also develops premiere works through its Fund for New American Plays, three of which have gone on to win Pulitzer Prizes: Angels in America by Tony Kushner; The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein; and The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan. The Center also commissions world premiere performances of new ballet and dance programs, and has its own ensemble, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. In addition, it co-produces new operas and brings international opera companies to the United States. The National Symphony Orchestra, the Center’s affiliate since 1987, also commissions dozens of new works and concerts, while the American Residencies for the Kennedy Center is a program that sends the National Symphony Orchestra to different states each year to perform and teach. The Center also presents performances of chamber music, folk music, popular music, and jazz. In addition, it puts on annual festivals that celebrate cities, countries and regions of the world. It also offers hundreds of free performances, including an Open House Arts Festival every September, to celebrate its birthday, and daily concerts of seasonal music in December. In addition, 365 days a year at 6 pm there are free Millennium Stage performances by talent from across the country that can also be seen live on the Kennedy Center’s web site, or at a later date via its digitalized archives. On network television, The Kennedy Center Honors is aired every year, while Public TV broadcasts additional Kennedy Center shows, as does National Public Radio. The Center also offers touring productions, many of which originate as newly commissioned projects at the Center before heading out on tour in subsequent seasons. In addition, the Center provides a wide range of educational opportunities for young people, alongside the many children’s theater presentations it produces, including giving backstage learning tours; sponsoring two annual dance residencies, one in ballet and one in partnership with the Dance Theater of Harlem; holding yearly multicultural book festivals, in which books come to life in readings and other interactive performances; hosting the American College Theater Festival competition; and offering internships and awarding fellowships. On July 1, 2011, the Kennedy Center entered into an affiliation with the Washington National Opera that is designed to continue WNO performances while providing long-term financial security for the artistic development of WNO.

From the Web Site of the Kennedy Center:

Alliance for Arts Education Network

Artistic Constituents

Artists Seminar

Arts and Technology: The 8th Stage

ArtsEdge

Arts Quotes

Ballet Performances and Programs

Changing Education Through the Arts

Multicultural Children’s Book Festival

Performances for School Groups

Performances for Young Audiences

Performance for Young Audiences On Tour Events

Performing Arts Series via Satellite/Web

Programs

Shakespeare Explorer

Subscriptions

Theater Events Upcoming

Tickets

Virtual Tour

Where Does the Money Go:

During the years 1997 through 2011, the Kennedy Center has spent $92.9 million on 1,039 transactions for goods and services. The top five services include restoration and repair of real property ($21.8 million), electric services ($9.59 million), restoration and repair of museums and exhibit buildings ($9.5 million), guard services ($9.5 million), and custodial janitorial services ($7.4 million).

The five top recipients of spending by the Kennedy Center from 1997 to 2011 are:

The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company $17,098,477

Securiguard Inc. $9,506,783

James G. David Construction Corporation $7,730,542

Pepco Holdings Inc. $6,500,300

Metropolitan Building Services Inc. $5,854,551

Controversies:

Recent concerns have been raised on a couple of fronts regarding The Blackstone Group, of which Schwarzman is the CEO and Chairman. One issue revolves around The Blackstone Group owning 80% of the power producer, Sithe Global, which is aiming to build the 1,500 megawatt plant Desert Rock on land governed by the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, and the 750 megawatt plant Toquop in Nevada, both of which are opposed by many parties, including the Sierra Club, the National Resources Defense Council, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (Desert Rock), and Nevada Senator Harry Reid (Toquop). The other major topic of concern surrounding The Blackstone Group is the idea that it has seemingly found a way to avoid paying taxes on funds it raised while selling shares to the public.

Tax Loopholes Sweeten a Deal for Blackstone (by David Cay Johnston, New York Times)

The Golden Ass: How Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman's antics may cost him and his colleagues billions of dollars. (by Daniel Gross, Slate)

Former Directors:

Stephen A. Schwarzman

Roger Stevenson

Ralph P. Davidson

James D. Wolfensohn

James A. Johnson

Comments

Kayla May 6 years ago

i think you should give more money to the Kennedy center's cost productions

Janice Elizabeth Mitich 7 years ago

There have been 230 people (some were pairs or groups) honored by the Kennedy Center since its beginnings in 1978. Just 63 women (27%) compared to 167 men (73%) have been honored. Only in 1980, 1989, 2005, and 2055 have more women than men been honored. A few years ago, I wrote the Kennedy Center, twice, expressing my concern over the disparity between women and men winners and what kind of negative message this was sending to our young women artists. I never got a response, and the Board of Trustees have not rectified this problem. I am sick and tired of the “Token Woman Syndrome.” Thanks.

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Content

Table of Contents
Overview
History
What it Does
Where Does the Money Go
Controversies
Suggested Reforms
Comments
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Founded: 1958

Annual Budget: $36.9 million (proposed FY 2012) for federally funded maintenance, operation, capital repair, and restoration of the Center’s buildings. The Center’s performances and educational programs are financed through ticket sales and gifts from individuals, corporations, and private foundations.

Employees: About 1,000

Official Website: http://www.kennedy-center.org/

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Rubenstein, David

Chairman

David M. Rubenstein was appointed Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in May 2010. He is the sixth chairman of the arts organization, having been a member of its board since 2004. The federal government generally provides $35-$40 million in funding to the Center annually.

Rubenstein was born in 1949 in Baltimore, Maryland, the only child of a father who was a U.S. Postal Service file clerk, and a mother who worked in a dress shop. Recalling his upbringing in a religious neighborhood, he told Washingtonian magazine, “I was literally 12 or 13 before I realized that everybody in the world isn’t Jewish.” Then he went to a public high school and discovered that “virtually nobody is Jewish.” He attended Baltimore City College High School, and spent his summers working as a camp counselor, a postal worker, and a door-to-door magazine salesman.

Rubenstein attended Duke University on a scholarship and graduated in 1970. In 1973 he earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as editor of the Law Review.

Between 1973 and 1975, Rubenstein worked for the New York City law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. Between 1975 and 1976 he served as chief counsel to Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Indiana) on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments.

Rubenstein joined Jimmy Carter’s presidential election campaign in 1976, working with Carter consultant Stuart Eizenstat to draft domestic policy. After Carter’s election, Rubenstein joined his administration as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, a post he held until Carter left office in1981. He then joined the Washington, D.C. law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge, becoming a partner after six years.

In 1987, Rubenstein and several friends met at New York’s Carlyle Hotel and came up with the idea of creating a private equity firm to do venture capital and buyouts. They raised $5 million and launched The Carlyle Group, which, over the years, has become one of the world’s largest private equity firms, managing more than $90 billion in assets, with 300,000 employees in 26 offices around the world. One of the companies Carlyle controls is United Defense Industries (now part of BAE Systems), one of the world’s largest defense contractors. Rubenstein is the group’s managing director. Among those connected with Carlyle are former president George H.W. Bush, who is an adviser, and former British Prime Minister John Major, who was chairman of Carlyle’s European operations from 2001 until 2004.

Rubenstein, who ranks #374 on Forbes’s list of the wealthiest people in the world, is reputed to be worth more than $2 billion. He is a member of numerous prominent organizations, including JPMorgan Chase, Freedom House, and the Trilateral Commission. His philanthropic donations include $15 million to Harvard University, $10 million to the Lincoln Center, $5-million to John Hopkins University, and $3.5-million to the Kennedy Center. In December 2007, Rubenstein purchased one of 17 original copies of the Magna Carta for $21.4-million and loaned it to the National Archives.

Rubenstein is married to Alice Rogoff, co-founder of the Alaska Native Arts Foundation and Alaska House, New York. The couple has three children.

Official Biography (Kennedy Center)

Big Deals: David Rubenstein and His Partners have Made Billions with the Carlyle Group, the World’s Hottest Private Equity Firm. How have they Made All That Money? Why are They in Washington? (by James K. Glassman, Washingtonian) (pdf)

Schwarzman, Stephen

Previous Chairman

Stephen Schwarzman, began his position as chariman of the Kennedy Center in May 2004. He received a BA in Intensive Culture and Behavior in 1969, from Yale, where he was a member of Skull and Bones with President George W. Bush, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, in 1972. He began his career at Lehman Brothers, and in 1978 was elected Managing Director. He was also Chairman of the Mergers & Acquistions Committee at Lehman Brothers from 1983 to 1984. In 1985 he co-founded The Blackstone Group, where he is currently Chairman and CEO. His income from Blackstone in 2007 was $350 million. He also received $4,7 billion when Balckstone went public. Schwarzman is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; on the board of the New York City Ballet, New York City Partnership, New York Public Library, and Film Society of Lincoln Center. In addition, he has been an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management.

Schwarzman is a longtime contributor to both political parties. His contributions to Republicans include: The presidential campaigns of George Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, and the Senate campaigns of Bob Dole, Elizabeth Dole, Rick Lazlo, Mel Martinez, Pat Roberts, Arlen Spector, Ted Stevens, and John Sununu. He has also given to the Republican National Committee. Democrats he has favored with contributions include: for president, Bill Clinton; for Senate, Erskine Bowles, Barbara Boxer, Jon Corzine, Tom Daschle, Frank Lautenberg, Jay Rockefeller, Charles Schumer; for Congress, Jane Harman, Patrick Kennedy, and Charles Rangel.

Schwarzman also gave $10 million to the Kennedy Center’s Theater program.

Official Bio

Blackstone’s Chief Received $350 Million in Pay in 2007 (Associated Press)

The Birthday Party: How Stephen Schwarzman became private equity’s designated villain. (by James B. Stewart, New Yorker)

Wall Street's hottest hand: Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman has built a powerhouse unlike any other. He avoided the blowups of the '90s, and he's finding gold in the market's rubble. (by Andy Serwer, Fortune)