Josef Palermo, The Atlantic; What I Saw Inside the Kennedy Center
I spent 10 months working at the institution because I thought I could help protect it. What I observed there is far worse than the public knows.
"Trump had come in promising that “for the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!” On the inside, my colleagues and I instead saw cronyism, incompetence, and a series of bizarre moves that would lead to the Kennedy Center going dark...
When Grenell instructed me to “get rid of” the center’s permanent art collection because we needed new art to adorn the building’s walls after its renovation, I was taken aback by his cavalier attitude. If the donors of the works didn’t want to pay for their removal, he said, we could put them up for auction or give them away. My mind raced immediately to the eight-foot, 3,000-pound brass bust of President Kennedy standing in the Grand Foyer. Designed by the sculptor Robert Berks, it is surely the most significant item in the center’s collection. When I reported the order to another top leader, his eyes grew wide; he told me not to do anything, and said his office would handle it. I can only hope that the bust—and all the other works—will be safe when the center closes its doors.
In a final indignity, those of us who lost our jobs would be eligible for another month of severance benefits (including health-care coverage) only if we signed a separation agreement with confidentiality and nondisparagement provisions. I rejected this offer because I believe Americans deserve to know about the desecration of our nation’s cultural center. This is also why I have begun participating in the ongoing investigation led by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and been in touch with Representative Joyce Beatty’s legal team to share information that may help her lawsuit. (She is suing the center in an attempt to stop its renaming.) There must be a firewall put in place by Congress to prevent this kind of hostile political takeover of the Kennedy Center from ever happening again. I hope that more of my former colleagues come forward too, even if anonymously."
