Construction is underway for the National AI Computing Center in the Solarisdo development in Haenam County, South Jeolla Province, on Feb. 11. Photo by Asia Today
Feb. 13 (Asia Today) — A vast stretch of reclaimed land in South Korea’s southwestern county of Haenam is being prepared for a government-backed artificial intelligence data center, part of a broader plan to build a new corporate city known as Solarisdo.
In Sani-myeon, where tidal flats once met the sea, construction vehicles have carved deep tracks into what was ocean just two decades ago. The site, now flattened and marked by a sign reading “Data Center,” is slated to host the National AI Computing Center by 2029.
The project is part of Jeollanam-do Province’s Solarisdo development, a 6.32 million-pyeong site – about 20.8 million square meters – envisioned as a self-sufficient city for more than 60,000 residents. The name combines “solar,” “sea” and “do,” the Korean word for province, reflecting its focus on renewable energy, waterfront development and smart-city infrastructure.
Provincial officials say the National AI Computing Center will operate as a high-performance computing hub under a public-private partnership, supporting artificial intelligence research and development.
While a groundbreaking date has not been finalized, an official said the center is scheduled to begin service in 2029.
The planned 40-megawatt facility is expected to use an average of 2.4 million liters of water per day for cooling. Jeollanam-do also aims to attract more than 20 additional data centers to the area, which could raise total daily water consumption to as much as 60 million liters – roughly equivalent to the daily water use of more than 200,000 people.
Provincial officials said the area has sufficient water resources, citing nearby Yeongam Lake, Geumho Lake and the Yeongsan River. They said average daily freshwater availability in the region reaches about 1 billion liters. Electricity demand will be addressed through a planned solar power plant and new substations in Solarisdo, officials said.
Local civic groups, however, voiced concern that large-scale data centers could deepen regional inequality and strain local resources.
An official with the Gwangju Environmental Movement Coalition said similar large industrial projects have prioritized national demand over local interests, citing the semiconductor complex in Yongin. The group questioned whether the data center would generate meaningful long-term employment and warned of added pressure on water and electricity supplies.
Jeollanam-do officials countered that the AI center is expected to create about 100 research and development jobs, including for graduates of local universities. They also said the project could attract startups and related companies, helping diversify the regional economy. Additional government support, including lower utility fees and rental assistance, may be needed to encourage investment, they added.
The Joint Inter-Agency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) released the three-page document on “Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructure” last Friday. The Pentagon established JIATF-401 last August to coordinate counter-drone efforts across the department and help accelerate the fielding of new capabilities. Last week, the Pentagon also announced new authorities for military base commanders, expanding their options for responding to drone threats more broadly.
The new guidance from JIATF-401 talks about “critical infrastructure” mostly in terms of civilian sites ranging from power plants to sports venues. Drones do present real and still growing threats to critical civilian infrastructure, something TWZ has been calling attention to for years now. The Pentagon explicitly said the document had been released as part of work it has been doing in cooperation with the White House’s FIFA Task Force, which is preparing for the United States to host the World Cup later this year. However, it is made clear that the contents are equally applicable to helping protect military facilities from uncrewed aerial systems.
“When we talk about Homeland defense, we’re not just talking about military bases, power grids and ports; we’re talking about places where Americans gather. With major international events like the World Cup on the horizon, the security of our stadiums, for example, is a national priority,” U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, Director of JIATF-401, said in a statement accompanying the release. “Whether it’s a forward operating base, an outdoor concert venue or a stadium hosting the World Cup, the principles of risk assessment and physical protection outlined in this guide remain the same. This new guidance provides a common playbook for our forces to work closely with federal and local partners to ensure a safe and secure environment against the growing challenge of nefarious drones.”
The new counter-drone guidance’s central concept is a framework called HOP, standing for Harden, Obscure, Perimeter.
“Hardening does not mean enclosing an entire facility, but selectively introducing obstacles that disrupt predictable aerial access,” the document explains. “Even modest obstacles can deter low-cost, consumer-grade drones and force higher-risk flight profiles.”
As noted, the guidance highlights nets and tensioned cables as examples of this kind of cost-effective hardening. It also recommends closing retractable roofs and otherwise covering any other roof openings where and when it is feasible to do so. Underscoring the immediate focus on the World Cup, the document notes that “netting used to protect fans from projectiles can be repurposed to disrupt sUAS [small uncrewed aerial systems] flight and observation.”
The section on hardening from the recently released counter-drone guidance. US Military
The guidance also recommends the construction of more substantial “permanent or semi-permanent structural shielding, including concrete walls, enclosures, or hardened roofs designed to protect critical systems from overhead approach, observation, or objects released from a UAS.”
We will come back to all of this in a moment.
The “Obscure” component of the HOP framework focuses on making it harder for drones and their operators to find their targets in the first place. This can include an array of different tactics, techniques, and procedures, such as physical camouflage and decoys, as well as regular changes to how personnel and assets move through a facility. “If a drone cannot easily identify targets, crowds, or critical systems, its effectiveness drops sharply,” the new guidance notes.
The obscuration section from the recently released counter-drone guidance. US Military
Lastly, there is the “Perimeter” portion of the HOP framework, which is centered on expanded security zones around a specific site and ways to improve general situational awareness. “Pushing the effective perimeter outward forces drones to operate at greater distance, which strains battery life, degrades video and control links, increases the chance of operator exposure, [and] creates a larger safety buffer if a drone is downed.”
The portion of the recently released counter-drone guidance discussing perimeter-related aspects of the HOP framework. US Military
As an aside, the recently announced new counter-drone authorities for the commanders of U.S. military bases include the ability to respond to threats inside expanded zones beyond the facility’s immediate “fence-line.” The right-sizing of perimeters around domestic facilities and their enforcement has been a particularly complex issue for the U.S. government when it comes to counter-drone policies in recent years. Potential second-order impacts to surrounding areas, especially in densely populated urban environments, have to be taken into account and mitigated. This all imposes limits on the kind of assets that can be employed to neutralize drone threats once they’ve been detected, as you can read more about here.
The counter-drone guidance released last week includes this annotated satellite image of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, outside Los Angeles. The red circle reflects a traditional inner security zone perimeter, while the yellow circle shows the boundaries of an expanded perimeter to help better protect against uncrewed aerial threats. US Military
“We will have the need for bases, the main operating bases from which we operate,” U.S. Air Force Gen. Kevin Schneider, head of Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), said during a panel at the Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) 2025 Warfare Symposium last March. “The challenge becomes, at some point, we will need to move to austere locations. We will need to disaggregate the force. We will need to operate out of other locations, again, one for survivability, and two, again, to provide response options.”
Schneider added at that time that his service was faced with the need to “make internal trades” in how to apply available funding, including “do we put that dollar towards, you know, fixing the infrastructure at Kadena [Air Base in Japan] or do we put that dollar towards restoring an airfield at Tinian.”
A US Air Force F-16 sits in a hardened aircraft shelter at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. USAF
“I got tons of airfields from tons of allies, and we have access to all of them. The problem is, I can only protect a few of them,” now-retired Air Force Gen. James Hecker, then head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), another member of that same panel, had also said. “We can’t have that layered [defensive] effect for thousands of airbases. There’s just no way it’s going to happen.”
“I’m not a big fan of hardening infrastructure,” Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, then head of PACAF, had also said at a media roundtable at the Air & Space Forces Association’s main annual symposium back in 2023. “The reason is because of the advent of precision-guided weapons… you saw what we did to the Iraqi Air Force and their hardened aircraft shelters. They’re not so hard when you put a 2,000-pound bomb right through the roof.”
It is worth noting here that traditional high-end guided missiles and other precision-guided munitions are no longer necessarily required to carry out strikes of this kind. Drones costing thousands of dollars, and able to be launched from very long distances away, can now execute precision attacks.
Wilsbach is now Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the service’s top officer.
The U.S. military has faced pushback from Congress on the topic of hardening. Multiple independent assessments have also raised alarms. TWZ has been following this often-heated debate closely.
There have been signs that the U.S. military’s position on hardening, and that of the Air Force’s more specifically, has been shifting already. In 2024, authorities at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina both put out contracting notices asking for information about nets and other physical barriers to stop potential drone attacks. Langley had become a focal point for the drone threat discussion by that point after the base was subjected to weeks of still largely unexplained drone incursions in December 2023, which we were first to report.
A graphic included a contracting notice put out by authorities at Langley Air Force Base in 2024 showing how sunshade-type shelters at the base might be equipped with anti-drone nets. USAF
Last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) announced that it had developed upgrades for a family of modular, rapidly deployable protective structures specifically to improve their effectiveness against drone attacks.
Elements of the U.S. Army’s Modular Protective System-Overhead Cover (MPS-OHC) modular structure system is subjected to a live-fire test. US Army Corps of Engineers
“The technology is not going to solve this problem for us. We can’t field a system that will stop every drone,” JIATF-401 director Brig. Gen. Ross told TWZ and other outlets during a press call in December in response to a direct question about physical hardening from this author. “At the end of that would be protection, which would be netting or fencing or physical barriers that would prevent a [sic] unmanned system from having its intended effect.”
Brig. Gen. Ross had said that this was among the things JIATF-401 had discussed in meetings with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies as part of World Cup preparations, presaging the release of the new guidance last week.
“As you think about protection, I would go all the way down to protective protection type assets, those will be included in our marketplace. And so if somebody wants to buy a $10,000 radar that has limited range, they’ll be able to buy it on the marketplace. If they want to buy a low cost interceptor for … [small drones] that just uses kinetic energy to defeat a drone – that’s a drone that hits a drone for $1,000 – they’ll be able to buy it on our marketplace,” he added. “If they want to buy physical barrier material, whether it’s a fishing net or a chain link fence, they’ll also be able to buy that as part of that counter-UAS marketplace.”
The central “marketplace” mentioned here, through which elements of the military and other U.S. government agencies can source counter-drone capabilities, is a key initiative that JIATF-401 has been working on and that you can learn more about here.
It is important to stress that U.S. military officials are unified in their position that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to countering drones. Physical hardening is just one part of a layered approach and is not a ‘silver bullet’ solution to protect against all types of drone threats. Active defenses, including electronic warfare jammers, drone-like interceptors like Brig. Gen. Ross mentioned, and more traditional anti-aircraft assets, are still part of the equation, to differing degrees, for defending against drones at home and abroad.
Elements of a counter-drone kit that U.S. Northern Command has been deploying for domestic use that includes drone-like interceptors and various sensors. US Military
At the same time, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has shown that even limited, lower-cost measures like netting can be useful for disrupting attacks by smaller kamikaze drones and loitering munitions in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
In Shebekino, Belgorod region, 41 apartment buildings have been covered with anti-drone nets. The local creatures are loving it – they joke about it and, as always, endure it with classic patience. pic.twitter.com/Q26fwKX1ut
The russian terrorist state no longer has the ability to produce Tu-95s or any kind of strategic bomber. This is a tremendous victory for Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/SVeQE78v0h
Outside of the United States, among adversaries and allies alike, there has also been a growing trend toward more physical hardening at air bases and other facilities. China has embarked on a particularly extensive effort to build new hardened and unhardened shelters at air bases across the country. The Chinese have been observed building other kinds of hardened infrastructure, including a new pattern of protected air defense sites along their disputed border with India, as well. Even before the unprecedented drone attacks last year, Russia had also been working to add new shelters, hardened and unhardened, to various air bases, but with a focus on ones closer to the fighting in Ukraine.
Structures that are sturdy enough even just to protect against shrapnel could have broader value, too. Just over a year ago, the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., published a report assessing that 10 missiles with warheads capable of scattering cluster munitions across an area with a 450-foot diameter could be enough to neutralize all exposed aircraft on the ground and critical fuel storage at various key airbases. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan and Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, as well as Langley in Virginia, were specifically highlighted, as seen below.
Hudson Institute
Overall, the Pentagon’s counter-drone prescriptions are still evolving, especially when it comes to defending bases and critical civilian infrastructure within the United States. At the same time, despite public stances that officials have taken in the past, hardened structures and other kinds of physical defenses have become an important part of the current counter-drone playbook.
Just five days after Philip Glass, one of the world’s most famous and revered living composers, canceled the world premiere of his “Lincoln” symphony at the Kennedy Center, President Trump announced he would close the nation’s premier arts center for two years for major renovations.
The arts world — already spinning from the sweeping changes to the venue that began almost a year ago when Trump fired the board and installed himself as chairman — was gobsmacked by the shocking news. And although the president said in a social media post that the closure was about building a “World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment, far better than it has ever been before,” speculation abounded that the unexpected move was more about saving face.
Embarrassment could have been a factor in the rash decision, but Trump is not a man who appears to be afflicted by that particular emotion, which takes its cue from a certain amount of self-awareness and humility. For this reason, I am venturing another guess about the president’s motive for pulling the rug out from under the storied venue: retribution.
If ungrateful artists don’t want to play at the Kennedy Center, the Kennedy Center will no longer be around for them to use. Take that.
The Kennedy Center was supposed to mark a vainglorious Trump’s ascendance to the pinnacle of cultural cachet, but instead the culturati shunned and humiliated him — refusing to join his party. New York City high society did the same before he was president. It was a pattern both familiar and painful. So Trump, like the man-child he is, took his ball and went home.
In this case, that ball happens to be the complex that serves as the symbolic seat of the nation’s vibrant, messy, questioning, deeply political and hugely alive arts and culture scene. To lose access to this beating heart — and all that it represents — is a grievous loss for our national identity. Its meaning was enshrined in President Kennedy’s vision for the center, and written on its walls, as the realization of a country, “which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.”
Like many of Trump’s controversial construction projects, the wholesale re-imagining of the Kennedy Center will likely face immediate and lengthy pushback in court. This could mean that it never gets done, and the center remains closed indefinitely. Or we could wake up tomorrow to news that bulldozers have arrived onsite and have begun the process of razing architect Edward Durell Stone’s historic 1971 building — as happened with the East Wing of the White House.
Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, wrote in an email that the renovations would include, “Repairing and, where necessary, replacing elements on the exterior of the building to ensure the long-term preservation and integrity of the structure,” as well as getting the building up to code and making fixes to the center’s “HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fire protection, vertical transportation systems, and technical stage systems,” as well as improving parking. She also wrote that the center, which hosts 2 million visitors annually, is working closely with the National Symphony Orchestra, and will “continue to support them with funding at the same level as recent years.”
Nonetheless, the most frightening thing about this new era under Trump is that anything is possible, and we sometimes don’t know exactly what that means until it is far too late.
I’m Arts Editor Jessica Gelt, and here’s your arts and culture news for the week.
On our radar
Yunchan Lim performs next weekend with the L.A. Philharmonic.
(LA Phil)
Dudamel Conducts Beethoven and Lorenz Playwright Jeremy O. Harris reconceptualizes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play “Egmont,” with narration by actor Cate Blanchett and maestro Gustavo Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Beethoven’s complete incidental music. The evening begins with the world premiere of Ricardo Lorenz’s “Humboldt’s Nature,” inspired by the South American travels of philosopher and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, followed by 2022 Van Cliburn winner Yunchan Lim performing Robert Schumann’s “Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54.” 8 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m. Feb. 13; 8 p.m. Feb. 14; 2 p.m. Feb. 15. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com/events
A scan of the face Nes-Hor, an ancient Egyptian priest whose mummy is featured in “Mummies of the World: The Exhibition” at the California ScienceCenter.
(California ScienceCenter)
Mummies of the World The scientific study of naturally and intentionally preserved corpses illuminates the lives of ancient people, past cultures and the present in this exhibition that includes more than 30 real-life mummies. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., through Sept. 7. California ScienceCenter, 700 Exposition Park Drive. californiasciencecenter.org
Ann Noble as “Richard III” at A Noise Within.
(Daniel Reichert)
Richard lll Guillermo Cienfuegos directs this fast-paced reinterpretation of William Shakespeare’s history play, reset in 1970s Britain with Ann Noble in the title role as one of the most fascinating villains ever. Sunday through March 8. A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. anoisewithin.org
You’re reading Essential Arts
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY The Abduction from the Seraglio Pacific Opera Project performs its “Star Trek”-themed parody of Mozart’s in L.A. for the first time in a decade. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 3 p.m. Sunday. Thorne Auditorium, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road. pacificoperaproject.com
Thomas Adès and Yuja Wang Composer Adès leads the L.A. Phil in Tchaikovsky’s “Francesca da Rimini , Op. 32,” the U.S. premiere of William Marsey’s “Man With Limp Wrist” and Adès own work “Aquifer”; and pianist Wang performs Prokofiev’s “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16.” 8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Rickie Lee Jones performs Friday and Saturday at the Wallis.
(Amy Harris / invision/ap)
Rickie Lee Jones The singer, musician and songwriter brings her genre-defying vocals, crisscrossing rock, R&B, pop, soul and jazz, to the Wallis for two shows. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org
Laguna Beach Music Festival Violinist Stefan Jackiw is joined by Kevin Ahfat on piano, the Parker Quartet and story artist Xai Yaj for a program featuring Beethoven and Janáček on Friday; and on Saturday, Jackiw, Ahfat and the Parker Quartet, along with clarinetist Yoonah Kim and musicians from the Colburn School perform works by American composers Florence Price, Leonard Bernstein, Eric Nathan and Aaron Copland, conducted by Steven Schick. 8 p.m. Friday; 7 p.m. Saturday. Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. philharmonicsociety.org
SATURDAY asses.masses Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim’s immersive, eight-hour video game experience — with intermissions, refreshments and a meal included — involves unemployed donkeys demanding that humans surrender their machines and give the animals back their jobs. 1 p.m. Saturday. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu
Chicano Camera Culture: A Photographic History, 1966 to 2026 The exhibition examines Chicana/o/x lens-based image-making through 150 works by nearly 50 artists. Through Sept. 6. The Cheech, 3581 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside; through July 5. Riverside Art Museum, 3425 Mission Inn Ave. riversideartmuseum.org
Katie Holmes stars in “Hedda Gabler” at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.
(Jan Welters)
Hedda Gabler Katie Holmes headlines this new version of Henrik Ibsen’s classic drama adapted by Erin Cressida Wilson and directed by Barry Edelstein. Through March 15. Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego. theoldglobe.org
Just Me – Pico Union This concert by the award-winning ensemble Tonality, led by founder and Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake, honors and shares the stories of transgender and non-binary individuals. 7 p.m. Saturday. The Pico Union Project, 1153 Valencia St., Los Angeles. ourtonality.org
Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Being Alive The stage-and-screen star, accompanied by Adam Ben-David on piano, performs Broadway and classic American tunes written by Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter and Harry Chapin. 8 p.m. Saturday. Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. carpenterarts.org
The orchestral collective Wild Up performs Saturday at the Broad.
(Ian Byers-Gamber)
Wild Up The orchestral collective presents “The Great Learning, Paragraphs 2 and 7” by Cornelius Cardew, a community collaboration with 30 pre-appointed non-musicians. 8 and 10 p.m. Saturday. The Broad, 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. thebroad.org
SUNDAY From Fugue to Fantasia: Debussy, Mozart, and More Colburn alum and violinist Blake Pouliot is joined by Jonathan Brown on viola and percussionist Matthew Howard. 4 p.m. Sunday. Thayer Hall, Colburn School, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. colburnschool.edu
MONDAY American International Paderewski Piano Competition Twenty-five young professional pianists vie for a $10,000 grand prize named for Ignacy Jan Paderewski, a celebrated European concert pianist and composer, who helped lead Poland’s battle for independence after World War I and later served as the nation’s prime minister. 1 p.m. Monday-Wednesday; 11 a.m. Feb. 13 and 5 p.m. Feb. 14. Murphy Recital Hall, Loyola Marymount University, 1955 Ignatian Circle. paderewskimusicsociety.org
Right in the Eye Jean-François Alcoléa, Fabrice Favriou and Thomas Desmartis play more than 50 instruments in this live concert, designed by Alcoléa, that serves as a soundtrack for 12 silent shorts by pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès. 7 p.m. Monday. USC Cinematic Arts, Norris Cinema Theatre at the Frank Sinatra Hall, 3507 Trousdale Parkway. https://cinema.usc.edu/events/event.cfm?id=72935
TUESDAY House on Fire The new music trio of Andrew Anderson, Wells Leng and Richard An perform a program of works for pianos, keyboards and other instruments by Tristan Perich, Erin Rogers, Matthias Kranebitter, Yifeng Yvonne Yuan, Erich Barganier, and group members An and Leng 8 p.m. Tuesday. 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd. pianospheres.org
sex, lies and videotape The Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. presents a screening of Steven Soderbergh’s breakout 1989 indie starring James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher and Laura San Giacomo with Giacomo in conversation with critic Lael Loewenstein. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. egyptiantheatre.com
WEDNESDAY Amadeus A new production of Peter Shaffer’s music-infused drama stars Jefferson Mays as Salieri, Sam Clemmett as Mozart and Lauren Worsham as Constanze, with Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak directing. The Pasadena Conservatory of Music will offer 10-minute Micro Mozart Concerts before every performance Wednesday through March 8. Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molina Ave. pasadenaplayhouse.org
Yefim Bronfman The pianist performs works by Schumann, Brahms, Debussy and Beethoven in a Colburn Celebrity Recital. 8 p.m. Wednesday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Here Lies Love Snehal Desai directs an all-new production of the musical about former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, with concept, music and lyrics by David Byrne and music by Fatboy Slim and choreography by William Carlos Angulo. Through March 22. Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. centertheatregroup.org
THURSDAY Intersect Palm Springs Arts + Design Fair Collectors, designers and curators convene in the Coachella Valley to present new work and share ideas with one another and the public. 4-6 p.m. VIP only and 6-8 p.m.Thursday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Feb. 13-15; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. ; Feb. 16. Palm Springs Convention Center, 277 N. Avenida Caballeros. intersectpalmsprings.com
Culture news and the SoCal scene
More on the Kennedy Center Times classical music critic Mark Swed weighed in on the Kennedy Center’s closure with a deeply knowledgeable piece about the history of the storied venue, and how it has always been a place marked, and sometimes marred, by politics — just never in this way. “The Kennedy Center proved political from Day 1. Leonard Bernstein was commissioned to write a theatrical piece for the center’s opening in 1971, which turned out to be an irreverent ‘Mass’ — musically, liturgically, culturally and, most assuredly, politically. Most of all it was an unmistakable protest against the Vietnam War. In his own protest, President Nixon stayed home,” Swed writes.
Many nights at the opera Meanwhile, arts and entertainment writer Malia Mendez penned a lovely piece announcing L.A. Opera’s 2026-27 season — the first under its new music director, Domingo Hindoyan, who takes over after longtime leader James Conlon steps down. Fun fact: Hindoyan and soon-to-depart Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel have been friends since their days together in Venezuela’s world-renowned youth orchestra El Sistema.
Mark your calendar On Thursday, Malia scored another exclusive, reporting on LACMA’s announcement that the David Geffen Galleries, the pinnacle of a two-decade campus transformation, will officially open April 19. Museum members will have two weeks of priority access to the galleries, with general admission beginning May 4. It was nearly a decade ago that business magnate David Geffen made a record-high $150-million donation toward the construction of a new museum building to be designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor. The $720-million structure will serve as the new home for LACMA’s permanent collection with 90 exhibition galleries organized thematically rather than by medium or chronology. “It’s kind of a worldview,” LACMA Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan told The Times. “It’s big enough that it can hold the world.”
Will Swenson stars as “Sweeney Todd” at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.
(Jason Niedle / TETHOS)
A bloody good time Comedian, musical theater star and “Seinfeld” alum Jason Alexander directed a revival of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, and Times theater critic Charles McNulty was there to catch it. “Alexander’s production of ‘Sweeney Todd’ has breadth and heft, but also intimacy and lightness,” McNulty writes in his review.
New Hammer hires Exciting staffing news arrives from the Hammer Museum at UCLA, which announced two new leadership appointments: Michael Wellen has been named the museum’s new chief curator; and Regan Pro is being brought on in the newly created role of chief of learning, engagement, and research, taking the lead on public programs and community partnerships, as well as K-12, family, and university initiatives. Both new hires will report to museum director Zoë Ryan. Wellen arrives from London’s Tate Modern where he is currently senior curator of international art; and Pro is a longtime arts leader and educator who most recently served as the deputy director of public programs and social impact at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
Alexander Shelley has been named music director of Pacific Symphony.
(Curtis Perry)
Taking the baton Pacific Symphony announced its 2026-27 Classical Series, marking the orchestra’s 48th season, and its first under the leadership of its new artistic and music director, Alexander Shelley. The season’s two opening programs will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, and the 40th anniversary of Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The opening night celebration in September features violinist Joshua Bell, after which Shelley will guide the season through a series of classic works, beginning with Mahler’s Second Symphony. A season highlight will be a program called America 250, which celebrates the country’s semiquincentennial and includes work by Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. Also on the calendar: John Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, “Nixon in China,” and a two-week Beethoven Revolution Festival.
Altadena has never organized itself around a traditional civic center, like a city hall plaza or downtown square. Instead, this decidedly informal community has relied on an informal constellation of shared spaces — parks and playgrounds tucked into the foothills, popular mid-century libraries, an amphitheater carved into a slope, a handful of living room-like bars and cafés.
After last year’s Eaton Fire tore through town, incinerating community infrastructure and scattering residents across the region, the importance of such places has grown dramatically — not only as centers of gathering, but as sites of refuge, planning and healing. Thanks to a determined commitment from residents and officials, these communal sites are starting to return — in many cases better than before — revealing innovative thinking about the ways we can create and use community spaces.
Earlier this month, L.A.-based aid organization Community Organized Relief Effort, or CORE, founded by Sean Penn and Ann Lee, broke ground on one of the hamlet’s newest local gathering spots: the Altadena Center for Community. Designed by acclaimed Japanese architect Shigeru Ban (who will be receiving the 2026 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal Award later this year), the 1,600-square-foot building, located on a county-owned lot on Lincoln Avenue, adapts a prototype that Ban — who has been designing lightweight structures for disaster victims for more than thirty years — first employed in Onagawa, Japan, following the 2011 Tōhuku earthquake and tsunami.
The vaulted, wood-beamed space, supported on its flanks by shipping containers, is designed to be put up quickly, affordably and with minimal waste, said Ban, who estimates construction will cost about $300,000 and be completed in two to three months once permits are approved.
“Every move we make has to be very cost effective,” noted Ben Albertson, the local project manager for Ban’s firm.
The center can host workspaces, meeting rooms, mental health facilities and community events, but programming is still pending, based on an assessment of community needs, noted CORE co-founder Lee.
An architectural rendering of Shigeru Ban’s design for the 1,600-square-foot Altadena Center for Community, located at 2231 Lincoln Avenue. Construction began in January and is set for completion this summer.
(Shigeru Ban Architects / CORE)
“What are the gaps? What do they want to name it?” said Lee. The center’s open, flexible design, she added, will allow programs to evolve over time — inside and out — with the goal of accommodating markets, religious services, yoga classes and other types of support.
Local officials, particularly L.A. County Parks and Recreation, immediately started to address the dearth of places to congregate after the fires. While parts of Eaton Canyon still burned, parks staff organized sheriff-escorted site visits to assess damage and determine which spaces could safely reopen first, said Chester Kano, deputy director of the planning and development agency at L.A. County Parks.
In May, Loma Alta Park was the first major spot to reemerge with significant upgrades, funded in part by an outpouring of donations from local residents and businesses as well as philanthropic sources like FireAid, the L.A. Clippers Foundation and the L.A. Dodgers Foundation.
“There’s been so much trauma. I think just building back the way things were would be insufficient,” says Kano.
County crews first addressed widespread damage, then installed new play facilities — including Landscape Structures’ towering “Volo Aire” jungle gym, featuring three tunnel slides — as well as two refurbished baseball fields, a new computer lab and a renovated pool and gymnasium. Several local artists, including Victor Ving, Eric Junker and Katie Chrishanthi Sunderalingam, have painted colorful murals.
Four-year-old twins Noah and Luke Stafford, who had to evacuate during the Eaton Fire, play on new equipment at Loma Alta Park in Altadena.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The park addresses the need for communal gathering via a new cluster of colorful outdoor furniture known as the Alta Chat Space.
“People didn’t have anywhere to go,” says Kano. “They were meeting on their driveways, literally on top of ash and debris, bringing folding chairs.”
Perhaps the most significant transformation will be to Charles White Park, located a short drive from CORE’s future facility and named for the famed Altadena artist. Long a community focal point, the five-acre park is set to undergo a redesign thanks to a $5-million donation from the Walt Disney Company, and a $5.5-million outlay from California State Parks.
County Parks and Salt Landscape Architects are set to take the lead on the work. New facilities will include a play area and splash pad designed by Disney Imagineers, a community center (with meeting spaces and interpretive exhibits about White), pathways, bathrooms, a small amphitheater, a bronze of White and public art by White’s son, Ian White.
Ian White said his designs are still being finalized, but could include poetry, sculpture, landscape art, and information and quotes relating to notable Altadena residents, including artists, scientists and indigenous tribes.
“It will be a dramatic shift,” noted White. “I must admit every time we have a meeting about it, I’m excited about the potential.”
White is complimentary of Disney’s willingness to take input from the community, despite a flurry of concerns that arose last fall around the release of an early design sketch of the play area, depicting somewhat cartoonish, pinecone-shaped play structures that some locals felt didn’t reflect local identity.
“Disney’s been doing the work, trying to understand the legacy and history of Altadena,” said White, who recently hosted 17 Imagineers at his house. “I think there’s going to be an evolution of their design,” added Kano.
Challenges remain
Despite early victories, there are more than a few remaining “heavy lifts,” as Kano put it. The county has brought in about $60 million to restore parks damaged in the Eaton and Hughes Fires, but about $190 million is still needed.
Arguably no lift is bigger than Farnsworth Park, the beloved recreation space along Altadena’s northeast side. That facility, now largely overgrown and covered with opaque fencing, still needs electricity after the destruction of its power lines and an on-site utility building. Its centerpiece, the lodge-like Davies Building, was all but obliterated by the fire, and its amphitheater, while still intact, suffered notable damage.
A view of the closed and heavily damaged Farnsworth Park in Altadena, which needs about $69 million in repairs.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Thus far, the park — which needs about $69 million in repairs, said Kano — has only received $5 million from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to build a healing and reflection garden along its west flank; and $3 million from the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy to rebuild a restroom and restore some landscaping and other related work.
Liz MacLean, a principal at Architectural Resources Group, a preservation-focused firm that has been advising L.A. County Parks about repairs to Farnsworth’s amphitheater, lived less than half a mile from the park. She and her family are still undecided on whether they will return to the area, making her memories of the park particularly poignant.
“It was a real destination for the community, tucked up in the hills,” noted MacLean. “They’d have a musical in the summer, and people would picnic outside of the amphitheater on the lawn. And every type of sport you wanted to do, there seemed to be a field for it. My daughters have had a bunch of events for their schools up there. Graduations, performances, meetups. The community would vote there. Boys and Girl Scout troops would have events in the banquet hall.”
Altadena’s two libraries, both spared from destruction, have borne outsized responsibility for picking up the slack from these losses, and have hosted community events and workshops for those hoping to rebuild. But starting Feb. 1, the skylit, greenery-filled Main Library will undergo a long-planned renovation and expansion that will put it out of commission for about the next 18 months, officials said. Updates will include access improvements, new mechanical and electric systems, a seismic retrofit, and space reconfigurations.
“There have been people who have said, ‘Please don’t close. What are we going to do?’” said Nikki Winslow, director of the Altadena Library District. “But this has been a long time coming. Our Main Library really needs a renovation.”
As a result, the smaller, recently renovated Bob Lucas Memorial Library and Literacy Center will host far more activity. The district has also installed a temporary satellite library inside a multipurpose room at Loma Alta Park. Stewart noted that the district is looking for more spaces — including the Altadena Community Center — to host events.
Ian White, standing by the sign for Charles White Park, is the son of the park’s namesake and is working on creating public art for the project.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“We’ve become so dependent on all things virtual, but nothing can really replace the human connection, especially coming out of a disaster,” said Carolina Romo, director of the Construction and Asset Management Division of the Los Angeles County Development Authority, which is coordinating with CORE on its new center. “You can’t really address the psychological toll in a virtual environment.”
CORE’s Lee says that such spaces are particularly important in areas where digital expertise is less common. “There’s just so much bad information out there. You don’t know who to trust. So going to a physical space and seeing people that you know you can talk to can make all the difference.”
Rebuilding will take years, and many decisions remain unresolved. But the community, said Architectural Resources Group’s MacLean, needs something solid sooner: “There are things that were lost that were special to everyone. At the end of the day people just want their community back. They want to gather again.”
Last Tuesday, Philip Glass withdrew the delayed premiere in June of his latest symphony, No. 15. Originally meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2022, it is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, but the composer decided the values of the current Kennedy Center were “in direct conflict to the message of the symphony,” which is inspired by Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address.
In rebuke to Glass, Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi’s quick response was: “We have no place for politics in the arts.”
Two nights later, the chairman of the Kennedy Center board (who also happens to be president of the United States) hosted at the “no place for politics” center a bevy of Republican politicians and donors for the gala premiere of “Melania,” a documentary about and produced by his wife, the first lady.
Three days after that, the president, with no warning to Congress (which administers the Kennedy Center), center staff or the public, announced on his social media platform that he would close the facility July 4 for two years to undertake a major renovation. This may get the center off the hook for putting together a new season, what with all its departures (voluntary and not) of competent artistic directors, but it also means the center’s one remaining major institution, and its crown jewel, the National Symphony, is suddenly homeless.
The fact is, the Kennedy Center has always been political. The same goes for orchestras. And Lincoln’s seeming role as a symphonic football is nothing new, either.
But political doesn’t — or, at least, once didn’t — necessarily imply partisan. In March 1981, two months into his presidency, Ronald Reagan turned up at the Kennedy Center for the premiere of a new production of Lillian Hellman‘s “The Little Foxes,” and was photographed happily congratulating a smiling Elizabeth Taylor backstage. Also present was the gruff playwright.
Hellman, who had been a member of the Communist Party and was called up in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, and Reagan, an avid anti-Communist, couldn’t have had much use for each other politically. But there they were, soaking up art and glamour (if maybe not in that order) together. It was also in 1952 and thanks to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts that the first inklings of a national performing arts center in Washington, D.C. developed.
Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait,” for speaker and orchestra, written in 1942 in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack, had been slated for a performance at Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1952. Complaints about Copland’s leftist leanings pressured Eisenhower to cancel the performance, but left inklings in Ike’s mind that the nation needed a performing arts center in Washington, D.C. In 1955, he instituted a District of Columbia Auditorium Commission and that led to the National Cultural Center Act of 1958.
Bipartisan support became a no-brainer. Kennedy was an enthusiast and, in his presidency, both First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower worked together to support the cultural center. In 1963, just days before his assassination, JFK hosted a White House fundraiser for the center. A year later, President Lyndon B. Johnson broke ground for what was to become “a living memorial to John F. Kennedy” with the gold-plated spade that President Taft had used for the Lincoln Memorial.
President Lyndon B. Johnson lifts a shovel full of dirt during ground-breaking ceremonies for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1964 while members of the Kennedy family look on.
(Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
The Kennedy Center proved political from Day 1. Leonard Bernstein was commissioned to write a theatrical piece for the center’s opening in 1971, which turned out to be an irreverent “Mass” — musically, liturgically, culturally and, most assuredly, politically. Most of all it was an unmistakably protest against the Vietnam War. In his own protest, President Nixon stayed home.
“Mass” was ridiculed by critics and sophisticates. And so was the Kennedy Center in its monstrosity. But the composition ultimately came to be seen as a precursor of musical Postmodernism and possibly Bernstein’s greatest work, a monument in its own right. The Brutalist monumentalism of the Kennedy Center also grew over time to be loved, increasingly bringing cachet to a diverse nation’s artistic needs.
All of that has, however, been called into question by a new administration noisily remaking the center as partisan and politicizing even renovation and Lincoln.
You don’t take on renovation of a single concert hall overnight, let alone an entire performance center with several theaters, including a major concert hall and opera house. This requires architects and acousticians deeply schooled in theaters, and each has its own acoustical needs. You touch anything, and it will affect the sound. Both the opera house and concert hall could use acoustical work, but that is a very big deal. If this sudden renovation comes as a surprise to staff, that means there have been no consultations, no proposals, no models, no feedback. Best to add to the budget some hundreds of millions of dollars to fix mistakes.
Before even considering anything else, a space has to be found for the National Symphony. It is possible to create temporary structures or renovate existing buildings into acoustical wonders, as architect Frank Gehry and acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota have proved. In Munich, the temporary Isarphilharmonie, which has Toyota acoustics, is so successful that some are saying the city doesn’t need a new concert hall after all.
So, given the timing of this precipitous announcement, it is hard to believe that something isn’t also going on with attitudes toward Lincoln and Glass’ displeasure with the Kennedy Center administration. For what it’s worth, Presidents Ford, Carter, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and Obama have all narrated Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.”
Lincoln has been central to Glass’ work for more than four decades. The composer first used Lincoln in Act V (known as “The Rome Section”) of Robert Wilson’s 12-hour opera, “the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down” (a prescient title for current Kennedy Center thinking), which had been intended for the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in L.A. but was never produced here for lack of funds.
Lincoln shows up in Glass’ 2007 opera, “Appomattox,” commissioned by San Francisco Opera and later revised and expanded for Washington National Opera in 2015. The opera offers a look at how the Civil War ended with high-minded statesmanship. The first act of Glass’ 2013 opera, “The Perfect American,” about the last days of Walt Disney, ends with a flashback of Walt, who idolized Lincoln, visiting Disneyland and getting into an argument about slavery with the animatronic Lincoln, which gets so worked up it attacks Walt.
Politics are rarely far away from orchestral or operatic life. At a recent appearance of the Chicago Symphony at the Soraya, Italian conductor Riccardo Muti followed an impressively grand performance of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony by telling the audience how the arts keep us honest and played as an encore the overture to Verdi’s “Nabucco,” as an example of how an opera could motivate public support for Garibaldi’s nationalist movement. Garibaldi also makes an appearance with Lincoln in the Glass/Wilson “Rome Section.”
A few days later at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, the thrilling Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería from Mexico City revealed an inspiring model of Latin American cooperation. On the program was Cuban composer Paquito D’Rivera’s “Concerto Venezolano,” featuring the fearless improvising Venezuelan trumpet soloist Pacho Flores. The concerto also featured solos on the Venezuelan cuatro by Héctor Molina, but his name was only announced last minute, due to current travel uncertainty.
One of the greatest recordings of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, his grab-you-by-the-gut answer to Stalin and celebration of Russia, is by the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, recorded in 1994 at the Kennedy Center. Stalin saw the symphony as his deification. Rostropovich exuded, in the Kennedy Center aura, the expression of an overwhelmingly triumphant celebration of the end of the Soviet repression. You can take the symphony and the opera out of the Kennedy Center, but you can’t take the essence of the Kennedy Center, the living memorial to the ideal of something larger than political ego, out of the symphony and opera.
IF you love wandering through woodland, spotting wildlife round every corner and then heading back to base to cosy up in a log cabin – this staycay is for you.
There is a hidden network of locations across the country that give Center Parcs vibes but without the price tag.
Sign up for the Travel newsletter
Thank you!
I’ve found a forest staycation with cosy log cabins – without the hefty price tagCredit: Catherine Lofthouse Kids can go climbing at the Rosliston Forestry Centre in DerbyshireCredit: Catherine Lofthouse
It’s easy to overlook the amazing forestry centres we have across the UK as only good for a woodland walk and to while away a few hours beneath the trees.
But some offer accommodation options as well, so you can enjoy the forest fun for even longer.
I was wowed by how much there was to do when I went to visit Rosliston Forestry Centre in the heart of the National Forest on the border of Staffordshire and Derbyshire.
Within moments of setting off down the tree-lined path, I had spotted six different species of birds and a huge cheeky squirrel hanging upside down from a feeder right in front of a hide where you can get up close to nature without the animals being scared off by your presence.
On site, there are loads of facilities that wouldn’t be out of place on an upmarket holiday park, like bike hire, a small soft play for under sevens opposite the cafe and lots of fun play equipment, including a striking sparrowhawk play frame installed last year to replace a much-loved earlier version that was known to all as the Owl.
You’ll also find the real thing here as there’s a birds of prey centre on site which is often open to the public. Over Easter, visitors will be able to hold a bird for £5.
You can visit for the day or for a stay, as lodges for up to 12 guests are tucked away down a little lane, so it’s perfect for a secluded staycation.
And a half-term break for a family of four is only £479 for the week, compared to £2500 for the same seven nights at the nearest Center Parcs at Sherwood Forest.
Every school holidays, there are themed trails and extra activities on offer, so for February half-term, kids can take on a space trail to find all the planets hidden in the trees for £3.
One thing you won’t find here is a subtropical swimming dome, but if you want to recreate that element of a Center Parcs break, you’re spoilt for choice in this part of the world as you’ve got four of the UK’s best waterparks less than an hour’s drive away.
The closest and cheapest is Moorways Sports Village in Derby, where 90 minutes in the waterpark costs £10.25 per person or just £2.10 for three to five-year-olds.
As well as flumes, slides and a wave pool, there’s often an aqua inflatable obstacle course at no extra cost in the school holidays and it’s only half an hour from Rosliston.
Moorways Sports Village has a swimming pool with an inflatable courseCredit: UnknownRosliston Forestry Centre has woodland walks and cosy cabinsCredit: Alamy
Further afield, entry to the waterpark at Alton Towers starts at £18 a person, the Wave in Coventry costs £56 for two adults and two children during school holidays or a family ticket for four at Waterworld in Stoke is £92. They are all about an hour away.
Even if you splash out on a waterpark trip or two, you’ll still be quids in if you choose this Center Parcs alternative for your half-term break.
And Rosliston isn’t the only Forestry England site where you can stay overnight as well as visit for the day.
Forest Holidays offer hot tub lodges on 13 sites leased from Forestry England, Forestry and Land Scotland and Natural Resources Wales.
You can get a midweek stay for a family of four from £860 over February half-term.
Some sites are near the coast and others have outdoor adventures like archery or zipwires.
Don’t forget to check cashback sites and membership schemes before you book as you may get an upfront discount code or money back after your stay.
Blue Light Card members can get up to £70 off Forest Holidays.
So why not head to the forest this February and be wowed by the wonders of the woodland all around us?
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Sunday that he will move to close Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for two years starting in July for construction, his latest proposal to upend the storied venue since returning to the White House.
Trump’s announcement on social media follows a wave of cancellations by leading performers, musicians and groups since the president ousted the previous leadership and added his name to the building. Trump made no mention in his post of the recent cancellations.
His proposal, announced days after the premiere of “Melania,” a documentary about the first lady, was shown at the center, is subject to approval by the board of the Kennedy Center, which has been stocked with his handpicked allies. Trump chairs the center’s board of trustees.
“This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment,” Trump wrote in his post.
Neither Trump nor Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell, a Trump ally, have provided evidence to back up their claims about the building being in disrepair, and in October, Trump had pledged the center would remain open during renovations. In Sunday’s announcement, he said the center will close July 4, when he said the construction would begin.
“Our goal has always been to not only save and permanently preserve the Center, but to make it the finest Arts Institution in the world,” Grenell said in a post, citing funds Congress approved for repairs.
“This will be a brief closure,” Grenell said. “It desperately needs this renovation and temporarily closing the Center just makes sense — it will enable us to better invest our resources, think bigger and make the historic renovations more comprehensive. It also means we will be finished faster.”
The sudden decision to close and reconstruct the Kennedy Center is certain to spark blowback as Trump revamps the popular venue. The building began as a national cultural center and Congress renamed it as a “living memorial” to President Kennedy — a champion of the arts during his administration — in 1964, in the aftermath of his assassination.
Opened in 1971, it serves as a public showcase year-round for the arts, including the National Symphony Orchestra.
Since Trump returned to the White House, the Kennedy Center is one of many Washington landmarks that he has sought to overhaul in his second term. He demolished the East Wing of the White House and launched a massive $400-million ballroom project, is actively pursuing building a triumphal arch on the other side the Arlington Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial, and has plans for Washington Dulles International Airport.
Leading performing arts groups have pulled out of appearances at the Kennedy Center, most recently composer Philip Glass, who announced his decision to withdraw his Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” because he said the values of the center today are in “direct conflict” with the message of the piece.
Last month, the Washington National Opera announced that it will move performances away from the Kennedy Center in another high-profile departure after Trump’s takeover of the U.S. capital’s leading performing arts venue.
The head of artistic programming for the center abruptly left his post last week, less than two weeks after being named to the job.
A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center could not immediately be reached and did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Late last year, as Trump announced his plan to rename the building — adding his name to the building’s main front ahead of that of Kennedy — he drew sharp opposition from members of Congress, and some Kennedy family members.
Kerry Kennedy, a niece of John F. Kennedy, said in a social post on X at the time that she will remove Trump’s name herself with a pickax when his term ends.
Another family member, Maria Shriver, said at the time that it is “beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy,” her uncle. “It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not.”
Late Sunday evening, Shriver posted a new comment mimicking Trump’s own voice and style, and suggesting the closure of the venue was meant to deflect from the cancellations.
She said that “entertainers are canceling left and right” and the president has determined that “since the name change no one wants to perform there any longer.”
Trump has decided, she said, it’s best “to close this center down and rebuild a new center” that will bear his name. She asked, “Right?”
One lawmaker, Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex-officio trustee of the center’s board, sued in December, arguing that “only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center.”
Price and Mascaro write for the Associated Press. AP writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
United States President Donald Trump has announced plans to close the John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts for two years for renovations starting in July.
Trump’s announcement on Sunday follows a wave of cancellations by leading performers, musicians and groups since the president ousted the previous leadership and added his name to the building.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Trump made no mention in his post of the recent cancellations.
“I have determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of Success, Beauty, and Grandeur, is to cease Entertainment Operations for an approximately two year period of time,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!”
The closure will start on July 4, to coincide with the 250th Independence Day celebration.
The decision, Trump said, will be subject to approval of the board, which he handpicked upon taking over as chairman.
The president added that the facility’s various entertainment events – concerts, operas, musicals, ballet performances, and interactive arts – would impede and slow the construction and renovation operations, and that a full temporary closure would be necessary.
“The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” he said.
“America will be very proud of its new and beautiful Landmark for many generations to come.”
There was no immediate comment from the Kennedy Center.
The complex began as a national cultural centre, but was renamed by Congress as a “living memorial” to former President John F Kennedy in 1964, in the aftermath of his assassination.
Opened in 1971, it operates year-round as a public showcase for the arts, including the National Symphony Orchestra.
After Trump took over as chairman of the centre’s board, several entertainers and performers withdrew their performances in protest of the president’s policies.
Among them were the producers of the award-winning musical Hamilton, and international operatic soprano Renee Fleming.
The Washington National Opera recently announced that it would leave the Kennedy Center, its home since the centre’s opening.
Renowned composer Philip Glass also announced on Wednesday the withdrawal of a symphony orchestra performance for Abraham Lincoln, saying that “the values” of the centre “today” are in “direct conflict” with the message of his piece.
Trump had criticised some of the programmes of the once non-partisan centre as too “woke”.
In recent days, the Kennedy Center hosted the premiere of First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary, which saw a record weekend at the box office, but drew mostly negative reviews from film critics.
The extent of the “complete rebuilding” mentioned by Trump is unclear, but he has described the structure as dilapidated and needing a facelift.
In a post on X, Maria Kennedy Shriver, a niece of the slain former president, criticised Trump’s decision without naming him. She suggested that the closure and renovation were made to distract Americans, as “no one wants to perform there any longer”.
Trump’s rebuilding plans for the centre follow a series of measures to reshape US historical and cultural institutions.
He demolished the East Wing of the White House and launched a massive $400m ballroom project, is actively pursuing the building of a triumphal arch on the other side Arlington Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial, and has plans for the Washington Dulles international airport.
If 31-year-old Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny wins the Grammy for album of the year Sunday, it will be the first time the award goes to a Spanish-language LP. A week later the singer, known as “the King of Latin Trap,” will headline the Super Bowl halftime show.
These twin feats by one of the world’s most famous performers — a proud Latino and a vocal critic of President Trump’s stance on immigration — plays out against the heartbreaking and chaotic backdrop of the federal government’s aggressive tactics on the streets of American cities, including Minneapolis, where two citizens were shot dead by federal agents.
For the record:
3:12 p.m. Jan. 30, 2026In the “On our radar” section of the newsletter, the item on “Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages” at the Getty mischaracterized the exhibition. The show primarily draws from the Getty’s collection of manuscripts, which are displayed alongside four works by contemporary artist Harmonia Rosales.
This is likely why a painting by an L.A.-based Puerto Rican artist named Ektor Rivera, a reimagining of Emanuel Leutze’s iconic 1852 painting, ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware,” is attracting a wave of attention online. An Instagram post about the painting by Rivera — which features Bad Bunny alongside a host of other Puerto Rican cultural heroes, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sonia Sotomayor and Tito Puente — has more than 170,000 likes and 2.3 million views, spurred in part by the fact that Ricky Martin, who is also featured in the tableau, shared it.
Titled “The Discovery of Americans,” the 5’ x 8’ acrylic-on-canvas painting was commissioned by Seth Goldberg, a talent agent who spent his career working with Latin celebrities from his homebase in Miami. In a phone interview, Golberg said he felt disappointed by the controversy that erupted after the announcement that Bad Bunny would play at the Super Bowl — particularly when people didn’t seem to realize that as a Puerto Rican the singer is an American.
A detail of “The Discovery of Americans,” Ektor Rivera, acrylic on canvas, 2025.
(Ektor Rivera)
“And I thought that maybe if we reframe that Leutze painting with these cultural icons, maybe it changes who we see and celebrate as American, or at least makes a few people think about it a little more,” Goldberg said.
Rivera, who met Goldberg at a dinner with his manager five years ago, ran with the idea, placing a cast of Puerto Rican luminaries in the famous rowboat alongside Bad Bunny — who is draped in the Puerto Rican flag and standing in Washington’s place.
“As a Puerto Rican, I have U.S. citizenship, but I’m still asked if I have my green card,” Rivera said in a recent phone interview. “The people who voluntarily don’t want to learn about the great aportación [contributions] Latinos are giving to this country, and in my case, Puerto Ricans, is really frustrating, and how ICE is dealing with our people is something that is very sad.”
It is notable in the painting that the boat is literally breaking the ice on the river as it moves across the water, Rivera said.
Rivera — a graduate of the School of Plastic Arts and Design of Puerto Rico — is also an actor. He starred in a Puerto Rican production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s early musical, “In the Heights,” during which time he met the famous actor and composer. Miranda and his father, Luis Miranda, later commissioned Rivera to paint a portrait of Rita Moreno, which now hangs in Centro de Bellas Artes de Santurce in San Juan.
The joy Moreno showed when the painting was unveiled has stayed with Rivera, who now lives and works in Santa Clarita. He is raising his children to know and love their Latin heritage — during a trying time when Latinos are often denigrated by the current administration.
Trump recently told the New York Post that he won’t be going to the Super Bowl this year, noting of Bad Bunny and the band Green Day, which will open the telecast, that he is “anti-them.”
“I think it’s a terrible choice,” Trump said. “All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
In Rivera’s painting, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara — where the Super Bowl will take place this year — can be seen on the horizon. Those in the boat are smiling. They are looking forward to being part of the mix. It’s a loving representation, filled with hope and possibility.
“We’re celebrating that we are putting our identity as Latinos on one of the major stages in the world,” said Rivera. “And that’s huge. That’s going to educate people, and make them interested.”
America, Rivera said, is not just for certain people.
“America is everybody. America is the world.”
I’m arts editor Jessica Gelt and I’ll be rooting for Bad Bunny at the Grammys this weekend. Here’s your arts and culture news for the week.
On our radar
“Creation” by Harmonia Rosales, 2025. Oil, gold leaf, gold paint and iron oxide on panel. 121.9 × 91.4 cm (48 × 36 in.).
Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages The Getty exhibition explores how people in the Middle Ages imagined the creation of the world through manuscripts, alongside works by LA-based artist Harmonia Rosales, who utilizes West African Yoruba mythology and Black resilience and identity.
Through April 19. J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. getty.edu
Tiffany Townsend performs Saturday and Sunday in Long Beach.
(Mia McNeal)
Crash Out Queens: A Tiffany Townsend Recital The soprano officially kicks off the Long Beach Opera’s season with an exploration of women in opera that expands into a multidisciplinary collaboration with pianist Lucy Yates, dancer Jasmine Albuquerque, scenic designer Prairie T. Trivuth and more. 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday. Altar Society, 230 Pine Ave. in Long Beach. longbeachopera.org
Midori Francis and Noah Keyishian rehearsing for “Sylvia Sylvia Syvia” at Geffen Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia A woman struggling with writer’s block and her own husband’s literary success takes refuge in the Boston apartment once occupied by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes in the world premiere of this tragicomic thriller from playwright Beth Hyland. Directed by Jo Bonney. Wednesday through March 8. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. geffenplayhouse.org
You’re reading Essential Arts
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
Soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha appears with the L.A. Phil Friday and Saturday.
(LA Phil)
Mahler, Bartók & Ravel Dudamel Fellow Elim Chan conducts the L.A. Phil in a program culminating with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony featuring South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha. 11 a.m. Friday; 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Miles Davis Centennial Concert The Miles Electric Band, led by Emmy- and Grammy Award-winning producer/drummer Vince Wilburn Jr., features a fusion of Miles Davis alumni and next-generation talents, including Darryl Jones, Robert Irving III, Munyungo Jackson, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Antoine Roney, Keyon Harrold and DJ Logic, plus special guests. 8 p.m. Friday. Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. carpenterarts.org
Lifeline Written by Robert Axelrod and directed by Ken Sawyer, this drama finds a mother volunteering at a suicide hotline following a life-altering event. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, through March 1. The Road Theatre, NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd. roadtheatre.org
101 Dalmatians The 65th anniversary release of the Disney animated classic gets a one-week run in movie palace splendor. Tickets are $10 and include a complimentary small popcorn. 10 a.m., 1, 4 and 7 p.m. daily, through Thursday. El Capitan Theatre, 6838 Hollywood Blvd. elcapitantheatre.com
“metal mettle metal mettle” by Steve Roden, 2020. Acrylic with paper collage
(Robert Wedemeyer/Courtesy Vielmetter Los Angeles)
Steve Roden/Sophie Calle A pair of new exhibitions open today in Orange County: ‘Wandering” focuses on the late Los Angeles–based artist Steve Roden’s works on paper, presenting drawings and collages as forms of travel without a set destination; and “Overshare” is a survey of French conceptual artist Sophie Calle’s photography, text, video and installation work that mines intimate relationships and chance encounters. Through May 24. UC Irvine Langson/Orange County Museum of Art, 3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa. ocma.art
Sweeney Todd Jason Alexander directs Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical thriller about the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and has assembled a topflight cast led by Tony nominee Will Swenson and Olivier Award winner Lesli Margherita. Through Feb. 22. La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd. lamiradatheatre.com
SATURDAY Garrick Ohlsson and Richard O’Neill Pianist Ohlsson and violist O’Neill team up for an evening of Schubert and Rachmaninoff. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St. broadstage.org
SUNDAY Common Ground The Los Angeles Master Chorale performs the world premiere of “The Beatitudes” by five-time Emmy Award-winning composer Jeff Beal, who will play the piano and flugelhorn, and Henryk Górecki’s “Miserere,” inspired by the 1980s Polish Solidarity movement. 7 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org
TUESDAY
Jacob Aune, left, and Sam McLellan in the North American tour of “The Book of Mormon.”
(Julieta Cervantes)
The Book of Mormon The latest national tour of the Broadway smash comes to town. When the show had its L.A. debut at the Pantages in 2012, Times theater critic Charles McNulty wrote, “Just know that this exceedingly naughty, though in the end disarmingly nice, show is devised by the minds behind ‘South Park’ and that risqué ‘Sesame Street’ for theater-loving adults, ‘Avenue Q.’ In other words, leave the kids at home with a baby-sitter” Through Feb. 15. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Feb 24-25. The Granada Theatre, 1214 State St., Santa Barbara. thebookofmormontour.com
Adams, Cheung & Lanao John Adams curates the third installment of the LA Phil Etudes, highlighting the orchestra’s principal musicians in solo pieces by contemporary composers Francisco Coll, Samuel Adams, Nico Muhly, Sílvia Lanao and Anthony Cheung. 8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Dr. Strangelove Steve Coogan plays four roles in this screening of the National Theatre stage adaptation of the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film recorded live in London. 7 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills. thewallis.org
THURSDAY
Cheyenne Jackson plays the Wallis Thursday night.
(Vince Truspin)
Cheyenne Jackson The Broadway heartthrob performs a “musical memoir” with tunes made famous by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Sam Smith and Chappell Roan, plus his own song “Ok,” detailing his father’s unconditional love for his gay son. 7:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills. thewallis.org
— Kevin Crust
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Eddie Izzard brings Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to Los Angeles in a new solo staging, adapted by Mark Izzard and directed by Selina Cadell.
(Carol Rosegg)
Eddie channels tragedy Times theater critic Charles McNulty weighed in on the gender-fluid British comedian Eddie Izzard’s solo performance of “Hamlet,” running through Sunday at the Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood. McNulty calls the show “a daredevil feat of memory, theatrical bravado and cardio fitness,” noting that, “As a spectacle, it’s as exhilarating as it is exhausting. The thrill of seeing a fearless, indefatigable performer single-handedly populate the stage with the myriad figures of this masterwork never lets up. But fatigue can’t help setting in once it becomes clear that this marathon drama will be delivered in the broadest of strokes.”
Father and son McNulty also headed to Matrix Theatre’s Henry Murray Stage to catch a Rogue Machine world premiere of L.A. writer Justin Tanner’s solo show, “My Son the Playwright.” McNulty calls Tanner “one of the signal voices of L.A.’s wild and free intimate theater scene.” The show is divided into two acts, one that presents the father’s side of the relationship, and the other, the son’s. “Tanner plunges into these ostentatiously autobiographical roles, heedlessly, hectically and without a psychiatric net,” McNulty writes.
Academy cuts Arts and entertainment writer Malia Mendez got the scoop that the Academy Foundation laid off all five staffers with its Oral History Projects team, “effectively dissolving the department responsible for conducting and preserving interviews with notable members of the film industry.” In a statement posted on social media, the Academy Foundation Workers Union, AFSCME Local 126, called the cuts “a sad and reckless choice.” (Also, two of the laid-off staffers were placed in other roles in the organization.)
Breaking Glass I jumped on the news that composer Philip Glass abruptly canceled June’s world premiere of his Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” at the Kennedy Center, saying its message does not align with the vision for the venue under the Trump administration. “Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony. Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership,” Glass wrote Tuesday in a letter to the board that was shared with The Times.
The hits keep coming Speaking of the Kennedy Center: As the artistic losses continue to mount at the beleaguered performing arts center in the wake of President Trump’s takeover — and renaming — of the venue, the Washington Post reported that Kevin Couch, who was recently announced as the new senior vice president of artistic programming for the venue, resigned less than two weeks later. No reason was given, and Couch declined a Post request for comment.
50 is nifty In happier local news, San Diego’s Opera Neo — a summer opera festival and young artist training program — celebrating its 50th anniversary season, and has announced its upcoming lineup. Highlights include Antonio Vivaldi’s, “Arsilda,” Louise Bertin’s “Fausto” and Gioachino Rossini’s “Il turco in Italia.”
Enjoying this newsletter? Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times
World-renowned composer Philip Glass abruptly canceled June’s world premiere of Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” at the Kennedy Center, saying its message does not align with the vision for the venue under the Trump administration.
“Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony. Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership,” Glass wrote Tuesday in a letter to the board that was shared with The Times.
“We have no place for politics in the arts, and those calling for boycotts based on politics are making the wrong decision,” Roma Daravi, vice president of media relations at the Kennedy Center, said in response.
President Trump has served as board chair since early last year when he fired the existing board and appointed former ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as president. The newly installed board promptly installed Trump in his current position. The president’s pursuit of a deeply conservative agenda for the arts unleashed unprecedented chaos at the nation’s premiere performing arts center, resulting in massive upheaval and wave after wave of prominent artist cancellations.
The news that Glass was calling off his appearance also caught off guard the National Symphony Orchestra. The NSO commissioned the symphony in 2022 for the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary, and Glass was late to deliver. The symphony was scheduled to be performed with the NSO on June 12 and 13.
“We have great admiration for Philip Glass and were surprised to learn about his decision at the same time as the press,” Jean Davidson, the orchestra’s executive director, said in an email.
The news comes amid a growing chorus of high-profile cancellations that have occurred since the center’s board voted last month to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center, and quickly added the president’s name above that of Kennedy’s on the exterior of the building.
Jazz drummer Chuck Redd pulled out of a Christmas Eve show and the jazz group the Cookers canceled two New Year’s Eve performances. Banjo player Béla Fleck also stepped away from concerts with the NSO and “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz said he no longer plans to host a May 15 gala at the center.
The arts world was rocked by the news earlier this month that the Washington National Opera’s board approved a resolution to leave the venue it has occupied since 1971. Kennedy Center leadership, including Grenell, quickly shot back that it was the board that asked the WNO to depart.
“We have spent millions of dollars to support the Washington Opera’s exclusivity and yet they were still millions of dollars in the hole — and getting worse,” Grenell wrote on social media.
Most recently, the center’s website announced that soprano Renée Fleming would no longer perform in two scheduled shows. “A scheduling conflict” was the reason cited, but speculation about the opera star’s departure swirled as the center’s artistic losses mounted amid widely reported plummeting ticket sales.
During the recent upheaval, arts watchers have begun wondering about the future of the NSO, which, along with the recently departed WNO, represents the twin pillars of artistic programming at the center.
According to Daravi, the NSO isn’t pulling out of the venue.
“The relationship is strong, and we have a wonderful season here with Maestro [Gianandrea Noseda] in his 10th year leading the NSO,” Daravi wrote in an email last week, noting the “record-breaking success at the recent Gala benefiting the NSO which launched the new season. The event raised $3.45 million, marking an all-time fundraising record for the organization.”
On Monday Trump sought to boost his financial management of the venue in a Truth Social post that read, “People don’t realize that the Trump Kennedy Center suffered massive deficits for many years and, like everything else, I merely came in to save it, and, if possible, make it far better that ever before!”
The center’s calendar is looking increasingly sclerotic as big names continue to defect, with the NSO providing much-needed padding as it moves on in the face of unending change.
