In what might be the most decisive critique yet of President Trump’s remake of the Kennedy Center, the Washington National Opera’s board approved a resolution on Friday to leave the venue it has occupied since 1971.
“Today, the Washington National Opera announced its decision to seek an amicable early termination of its affiliation agreement with the Kennedy Center and resume operations as a fully independent nonprofit entity,” the company said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Roma Daravi, Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, described the relationship with Washington National Opera as “financially challenging.”
“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with the WNO due to a financially challenging relationship,” Daravi said in a statement. “We believe this represents the best path forward for both organizations and enables us to make responsible choices that support the financial stability and long-term future of the Trump Kennedy Center.”
Kennedy Center President Ambassador Richard Grenell tweeted that the call was made by the Kennedy Center, writing that its leadership had “approached the Opera leadership last year with this idea and they began to be open to it.”
“Having an exclusive relationship has been extremely expensive and limiting in choice and variety,” Grenell wrote. “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.”
WNO’s decision to vacate the Kennedy Center’s 2,364-seat Opera House comes amid a wave of artist cancellations that came after the venue’s board voted to rename the center the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. New signage featuring Trump’s name went up on the building’s exterior just days after the vote while debate raged over whether an official name change could be made without congressional approval.
That same day, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) — an ex officio member of the board — wrote on social media that the vote was not unanimous and that she and others who might have voiced their dissent were muted on the call.
Grenell countered that ex officio members don’t get a vote.
Cancellations soon began to mount — as did Kennedy Center‘s rebukes against the artists who chose not to appear. Jazz drummer Chuck Redd pulled out of his annual Christmas Eve concert; jazz supergroup the Cookers nixed New Year’s Eve shows; New York-based Doug Varone and Dancers dropped out of April performances; and Grammy Award-winning banjo player Béla Fleck wrote on social media that he would no longer play at the venue in February.
WNO’s departure, however, represents a new level of artist defection. The company’s name is synonymous with the Kennedy Center and it has served as an artistic center of gravity for the complex since the building first opened.
It’s the second day of a brand new year, and I’d like to take a moment to look back at some of the towering talent we lost in 2025 through the appreciations and obituaries written by the arts staff.
A caveat: The Times strives to acknowledge significant figures in arts and culture when they die, but due to the fast-paced nature of daily news, we often miss people we wish we hadn’t, so this list is far from inclusive.
A preview of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Geffen Galleries, June 26, 2025.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Singer Angelique Kidjo performs with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Aug. 28, 2025, at the Hollywood Bowl.
(Hon Wing Chiu / For The Times)
The cast of “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”: Bisserat Tseggai, left, Jordan Rice, Victoire Charles and Claudia Logan, Oct. 1, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Edward V. Valentine’s “Jefferson Davis,” at the “MONUMENTS” exhibit at MOCA, Oct. 10, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Gustavo Dudamel conducts Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, Oct. 11, 2025, in Inglewood.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)
June Squibb, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York City.
(Evelyn Freja / For The Times)
Ben Platt, Dec. 4, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The SoCal scene
The exhibition floor at the LA Art Show in 2022.
(LA Art Show)
Art for 2026 The first big art event of the new year kicks off Wednesday when the 31st edition of the LA Art Show opens downtown. Galleries and institutions from around the world will exhibit art across the vast spaces of the Los Angeles Convention Center. This year’s program includes the debut of an invitation-only Latin American Pavilion, curated by Marisa Caichiolo, who also curates the DIVERSEartLA program. Among the other featured presentations are works by Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri and South African artist Esther Mahlangu, plus a solo exhibition of abstract paintings by Sylvester Stallone. The show continues through Jan. 11.
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Idris Elba arriving at the 2004 Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
That’s Sir Idris to you
Actors Idris Elba and Cynthia Erivo were among the more than 1,100 people on King Charles III’s annual New Year Honours List released this week. The British tradition recognizes people who have “made achievements in public life” and “committed themselves to serving and helping the UK.” Elba, known for television roles in “The Wire” and “Luther” and movies including “Beasts of No Nation” and “Thor,” was knighted for services to young people. “Wicked” star Erivo, a Tony and Grammy winner and three-time Oscar nominee, received a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, for services to music and drama.
Freedom from fascism On a recent fall day, Catherine Rampell of the Bulwark was given a guided tour of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., by the artist’s granddaughter Daisy Rockwell. In an article published this week, “The MAGAfication of Norman Rockwell,” Daisy expressed her displeasure with the Trump administration’s misappropriation of her grandfather’s work to promote the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s anti-immigrant operations. “Norman Rockwell was antifa,” Daisy told Rampell. “They used [the paintings] … as though his work aligned with their values, i.e., promoting this segregationist vision of America. And so of course we were upset by this, because Norman Rockwell was really very clearly anti-segregationist.” Through most of Rockwell’s career, he depicted American life largely through a white lens, but eventually came to a reckoning with some of his own views, chronicling some of the most significant moments of the civil rights movement. In November, the Rockwell family published a letter in USA Today detailing how the artist’s “efforts to eradicate prejudices both within himself and others led him to explore issues of racism, violence and segregation well into his 70s.”
Russia reopens Mariupol theater where hundreds died In March 2022, a Russian air strike killed more than 600 civilians sheltering inside a historic theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. This week, the Associated Press reported that Moscow-installed authorities in the now occupied region reopened the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater with a gala concert on the building’s newly rebuilt main stage. Russian state media outlets shared images of the building’s marbled pillars and staircases as dancers, wearing kokoshniks, traditional Russian headdresses, performed. Mariupol’s Ukrainian city council, which left the city when it became occupied, denounced the “restoration,” calling it “a cynical attempt to conceal the traces of a war crime” in a statement on Telegram.
— Kevin Crust
And last but not least
“Twelfth Night,” with Moses Sumney, left, Kapil Talwalkar, Junior Nyong’o and Lupita Nyong’o at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, which was broadcast on PBS’ “Great Performances” in November and is available to stream via PBS Passport.
(Joseph Sinnott)
Times television critic Robert Lloyd wrapped his year with an essay, “6 ways public broadcasting will improve your life. And that’s a promise.” One suggestion is to make a tax-deductible $5-a-month donation to PBS. That gifts gets you “PBS Passport,” public television’s all-access streaming platform, which offers an endless bounty of quality programming. Key among the offerings of interest to readers of this newsletter are programs such as “Great Performances,” “Austin City Limits” and “Artbound,” plus a rabbit hole of regional arts programming with something for every taste. As Lloyd wrote, “If you can’t find something to watch or listen to here, you are simply an incurious person.”
Christmas is behind us, and the New Year is bearing down on us with alarming speed. It’s hard to believe that it has been almost a full year since the devastating fires erupted in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades, sending many of us, our neighbors and friends fleeing to far corners of the state to escape the flames and smoke.
That tragic week marked the beginning of 2025 and the dawn of the second Trump term, ushering in a year that would challenge us in more ways than could have been imagined at the end of 2024.
As I look back on all the stories that The Times’ arts team covered over the last 12 months, it’s notable that the fires and Trump’s effect on the arts dominated the top of the most-read list. But there were also joyful stories about the people, shows and trends that shaped the cultural narrative of the endlessly surprising mid-2020s.
Without further ado, here are the top 10 most-read arts stories of 2025.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt wishing you a happy, safe and healthy new year. Here’s your arts news for the week.
Our critics
Art critic Christopher Knight’s recent retirement reminded us how fortunate we are to have the finest critics covering the arts in Southern California. Here are a few of our most read pieces of criticism from 2025.
The new David Geffen Galleries, opening in 2026, are composed entirely of Brutalist concrete.
Countdown NYE The giant intergalactic rave, promising alien contact, four stages and all-night debauchery, moves to the L.A. Convention Center for its 11th edition with headliners including John Summit, Above & Beyond, Pryda, Madeon, Slander, Sub Focus, Crankdat and Wuki. 7 p.m.-5 a.m. Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., downtown L.A.. countdownnye.com
A preview of last year’s New Year’s Eve LA Midnight Countdown at Gloria Molina Grand Park.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Countdown to 2026 Gloria Molina Grand Park’s free, all-ages New Year’s Eve celebration, reportedly the largest on the West Coast, rings in the holiday with live music and performances on the Get Down Stage (hosted by Shaun Ross, featuring Ashley Younniä, Clax10 and DJ Wayne Williams) and the Countdown Stage, hosted by DJ Gingee featuring Ceci Bastida, Bardo and Ruby Ibarra. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday. 200 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. grandparkla.org
New Year’s Eve with El DeBarge The R&B crooner of such hits “All This Love,” “I Like it,” “Stay With Me” and “Rhythm of the Night” helps the new live jazz venue inaugurate a new tradition. 8 and 11 p.m. Wednesday. Blue Note LA, 6372 W. Sunset Blvd. bluenotejazz.com
The Roots ring in the New Year at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
(Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn.)
New Year’s Eve with the Roots Philly’s finest take a break from “Tonight Show” duties to bring their eclectic blend of hip-hop to L.A. for two shows to close out the year. 7 and 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Queen Mary New Year’s Eve Party in timeless elegance aboard the iconic ocean liner (safely moored in Long Beach to ensure there’s a morning after) with its Masquerade Soirée, live music, performances, casino games and fireworks. 8 p.m. Wednesday. 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach. queenmary.com
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Eugène Grasset, “Vitrioleuse (The acid thrower)” (detail), 1894, from the periodical L’Estampe Originale, album 6, April–June 1894. Printed by Auguste Delâtre. Lithograph, hand stenciled in five colors. 22 7/8 x 18 in.
(UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum. Bequest of Elisabeth Dean.)
A great gift The UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts marks its 70th anniversary in 2026 and the Hammer Museum is presenting a two-part exhibition drawn from the center’s more than 45,000 prints, drawings, photographs, and artist’s books. Part one of “Five Centuries of Works on Paper: The Grunwald Center at 70” features nearly 100 works ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary art and includes pieces by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Vassily Kandinsky, Käthe Kollwitz, Ansel Adams, Elizabeth Catlett, Corita Kent, Bridget Riley, Ed Ruscha and Vija Celmins. The exhibit opened Dec. 20 and runs through May 17. Part two is scheduled from June 7-Oct. 25.
Fred Grunwald, a shirt factory owner, began collecting art in Germany in the 1920s with a focus on German Expressionism. After the Nazis seized most of the original collection, he and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1939. Grunwald started a new shirt factory and resumed his collecting in Los Angeles, expanding his interests to include prints from 19th and 20th century Europe, 19th century Japan and contemporary America. In 1956, Grunwald donated his extensive collection to UCLA so it would be accessible to students. His wife and children continued making gifts to the Grunwald Center after his death in 1964.
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“There is very strong evidence that all three pieces came out of Cambodia, out of a context of war and violence and the dissolution of order,” said Chase F. Robinson, the NMAA’s director. “All three can be connected with problematic dealers, and no evidence emerged that gave us any confidence that the pieces came out in anything other than those circumstances. So after a lot of internal research and several visits to Cambodia, we worked closely with both the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts as well its legal representative Edenbridge, shared the information we had, and came to the conclusion that all three pieces should be returned.”
The three returned artifacts are a 10th century sandstone head whose ornate carved designs match others at the temple of Pre Rup; a four-foot-tall sandstone sculpture of the goddess Uma, also from the 10th century, whose detailing ties it to the temple of Phnom Bakheng; and a bronze statue of Prajnaparamita, the goddess of transcendental wisdom, from around 1200.
— Kevin Crust
And last but not least
Once you’ve slept off the New Year’s Eve festivities and had your fill of football, settle in Thursday at 8 p.m. for PBS SoCal’s broadcast of the Vienna Philharmonic’s annual concert from the city’s historic Musikverein. The ensemble will be conducted for the first time by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and feature performances by the Vienna State Ballet and location segments hosted by “Downton Abbey’s” Hugh Bonneville.
With the ongoing fracas over President Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing, a number of other Trump administration-led attempts to remake the architectural landscape of Washington, D.C., have flown largely under the radar. This includes the sale and possible demolition of the Wilbur J. Cohen Building, which was completed in 1940 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
Part of what makes the building so beloved is a series of 1942 frescoes by Ben Shahn titled “The Meaning of Social Security,” commissioned as part of the Roosevelt administration’s robust New Deal art program. In a recent article in the New Republic, architectural historian Gray Brechin is quoted as calling the Cohen building, “a kind of Sistine Chapel of the New Deal.”
The structure, originally known as the Social Security Administration Building, has served as the headquarters for Voice of America since 1954. In March, Trump signed an executive order cutting funding for the agency that oversees VOA, and most of its staff was placed on administrative leave. In June, more than 600 VOA employees received layoff notices, and the service basically shut down.
At the beginning of this year, Congress agreed to sell the Cohen building, which had been suffering from major maintenance issues. The scope of the threat to the building became clear earlier this month when Bloomberg reported that “The White House is independently soliciting bids to recommend the demolition of the historic buildings [including the Cohen building], without the input of the General Services Administration, which maintains government buildings.”
“Federal properties can be sold quickly with limited public input. As powerful interests move in haste to sell this historic building, we call for the process to be paused and conducted with transparency, respect, and public participation,” the petition, which has garnered more than 4,700 signatures, states.
The Shahn frescoes aren’t the only precious New Deal artworks in danger. Other art housed in the Cohen building include murals by Seymour Fogel and Philip Guston.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt wondering when enough is enough. Here’s your arts news for the week.
On our radar
Grant Gershon conducts the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
(Jamie Phan / Los Angeles Master Chorale)
Disney Hall-e-lu-jah It’s hard to imagine the holidays without music, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale has three days of caroling and chorusing that should lift anyone’s seasonal spirits. A new addition to the choir’s traditional offerings is the family-friendly “Carols for Kids” (11 a.m. Saturday. Walt Disney Concert Hall), featuring Youth Chorus LA and designed for even the squirmiest children, 6 and under. That will be followed by the “Festival of Carols” (2 p.m. Saturday. Disney Hall), a program of global holiday music. The group’s performance of “Handel’s Messiah” (7 p.m. Sunday. Disney Hall) is a worthy centerpiece of any celebration. If you’re ready to have your own voice be heard, “Carols on the Plaza” (6 p.m. Monday, across the street at the Music Center’s Jerry Moss Plaza), is your chance to join in on free outdoor caroling with family, friends and fellow Angelenos. Festivities conclude with the Master Chorale’s “Messiah Sing-Along” (7:30 p.m. Monday) back at Disney Hall where 2,000 voices will unite for the “Hallelujah Chorus.” — Kevin Crust Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave.; Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY The Fruit Cake Follies In its 27th year, this madcap holiday variety show promises “music, mirth and merriment.” 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with dinner at 6:30 p.m.; 1 p.m Sunday, with brunch at 11 a.m. Catalina Jazz Club, 6725 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood. catalinajazzclub.com
Guadalupe Maravilla: A Performance Expanding on his solo exhibition “Les soñadores,” the transdisciplinary artist creates a collective ritual combining sound, vibration and healers from around the world alongside L.A.-based artists. 8 p.m. REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org
Piotr Beczala The Polish-born tenor, known for his work in opera and the classical vocal canon, performs, accompanied by conductor and pianist Kamal Khan. 7:30 p.m. Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica broadstage.org
“Wet” by Sahar Khoury at Parker Gallery, 2025
(Sahar Khoury / Parker Gallery)
Sahar Khoury The interdependence of materials and their social and cultural environments inspired the sculptor’s newest solo exhibition, “Wet,” a series of pieces created from ceramic, steel, iron, brass and aluminum. 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday, through Jan. 17. Parker Gallery, 6700 Melrose Ave. parkergallery.com
SATURDAY Christmas Joy Concert The free Third@First concert series continues with a program of carols, classic and new. 4 p.m. First United Methodist Church of Pasadena, 500. E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. thirdatfirst.org
Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps in the romantic drama “Love & Basketball.”
(New Line Cinema)
Love & Basketball Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood marks the 25th anniversary of her modern romance classic, starring Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps, Alfre Woodard and Dennis Haysbert. 7 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
The cast of “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet.”
Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet This 80-plus city tour offers a distinct blend of classical ballet with avant-garde circus techniques and global influences, complete with 10-foot-tall animal puppets constructed by Roger Titley. For its 33rd year on the road, the production adds a new character: Sweets the Dog, created by Barry Gordemer of the award-winning puppeteer studio Handemonium. — Ashley Lee Noon, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles; and 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd. nutcracker.com
SUNDAY Collecting Impressionism at LACMA This new exhibition traces how the museum built its collection and its pursuit of legitimacy through early acquisitions of American and California Impressionism and donations of paintings by Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro from major Hollywood collectors. Through Jan. 3, 2027. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Resnick Pavilion, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org
Actor Taylor Nichols, left, and director Whit Stillman at a 20th anniversary screening of “Metropolitan” at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
(Jemal Countess / Getty Images)
Metropolitan It’s hard to believe that it’s been 35 years since the young socialites of the “urban haute bourgeoisie” entered our consciousness via filmmaker Whit Stillman’s delightfully droll film and its banter-driven, Oscar-nominated screenplay. Stillman and actor Taylor Nichols will be on hand for a Q&A with the screening. 2 p.m. Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. americancinematheque.com
WEDNESDAY
Aloe Blacc and Maya Jupiter host the 2025 L.A. County Holiday Celebration.
(Music Center)
L.A. County Holiday Celebration The Music Center’s annual spectacular features more than 20 local music ensembles, choirs and dance companies. The free, ticketed event will also be broadcast on PBS SoCal. Aloe Blacc and Maya Jupiter are this year’s hosts. 3-6 p.m. Dec. 24. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. musiccenter.org
— Kevin Crust
Dispatch: A director with a human touch
Cameron Watson is the new artistic director of Skylight Theatre Company.
(David Zaugh)
Stage director Cameron Watson has one of the best batting averages in town.
His productions of “The Sound Inside” at Pasadena Playhouse, “On the Other Hand, We’re Happy” for Rogue Machine Theatre at the Matrix and “Top Girls” at Antaeus Theatre Company were morale-boosting for a critic in the trenches, offering proof that serious, humane, highly intelligent and happily unorthodox drama was alive and well in Los Angeles.
Watson’s appointment as artistic director of Los Feliz’s Skylight Theatre Company starting Jan. 1 is good news for the city’s theater ecology. Producing artistic director Gary Grossman, who led the company for 40 years with enormous integrity, built the small but ambitious Skylight into an incubator of new work that embraces diversity and the local community.
Developing new plays is fraught with risk. Watson has the both the artistic acumen and audience sensitivity needed to usher Skylight through this perilous moment in the American theater when so many companies seem to be holding on by a thread.
Watson, like Peter Brook before him, knows how to convert an empty space into a realm of magic and meaning. For Watson, the play’s the thing. But for the spark to happen, actors and audience members need a director as intuitively attuned to the uncertain human drama as Skylight Theatre Company’s new leader. (The director’s current production of “Heisenberg” at Skylight ends Sunday.)
— Charles McNulty
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Moving in stereo The most Tony-nominated play in Broadway history, “Stereophonic,” is playing at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through Jan. 2. Times theater critic Charles McNulty caught opening night and wrote that the first touring production fails to capture the high notes of the Broadway original. A few days later, I sat down for an interview at Amoeba Records with Will Butler, the former Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist who wrote the music for the show. Our interview took place before Butler got onstage with the cast of the show for a short live in-store performance.
Boiling in Brooklyn Brooklyn was also on McNulty’s itinerary, where he saw Michelle Williams in the new revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” at St. Ann’s Warehouse. “Michelle Williams seems to have unlimited emotional access. Her inner intensity expresses itself in a frenzy of volcanic feeling that can never be tamped down once it reaches its boiling point,” McNulty writes.
The name game The Kennedy Center continued its Trump-era transformation Thursday after the board voted unanimously to rename the world-famous performing arts venue The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. It remains unclear if the move is legal, or if the name change will need to be made official via an act of Congress.
Viva Las Vegas I got a look at newly revealed architectural plans for the Las Vegas Museum of Art, which is expected to break ground in 2027. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Diébédo Francis Kéré is designing the city’s first freestanding museum and says his ideas were inspired by the red rocks and canyons of the desert surrounding Sin City.
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LACMA United Workers at Los Angeles County Museum of art voted to unionize Wednesday. The vote in favor was 96%, and came after LACMA rejected workers’ requests for voluntary recognition. Staffers have expressed disappointment in management over what they are calling its anti-union campaign.
La malchance The Louvre is down on its luck. Maintenance issues have lately plagued the famous Paris museum, and then there was that infamous heist. Now workers have voted to strike over working conditions among other complaints.
