A large group of demonstrators locked arms to form a human chain around the Kennedy Center on Friday evening to protest President Trump’s efforts to close and remake the center in his image, amid speculation about a possible effort to demolish the building.
Hundreds of demonstrators, many of them performing artists and workers at the Kennedy Center, sang and played music as they circled the building and the sun set over the embattled cultural institution.
Late Wednesday night, photojournalists captured a series of images through the windows of Air Force One that showed Mr. Trump reviewing a large poster board with what looked like a rendering of a construction site beneath the title: “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.”
The photos, which circulated online ahead of the rally, appeared to spur turnout. Several demonstrators said they had seen the images but dismissed the possibility of a demolition as another one of Mr. Trump’s publicity stunts. Organizers celebrated a previous court victory removing Mr. Trump’s name from the center and said they hoped that the center would soon reopen, after the board, led by Mr. Trump, moved to close it earlier this week.
“It seems pretty performative,” said David Novy, 51, who attended the rally and has been coming to performances at the Kennedy Center since he was in high school in the 1990s, and is a subscriber to the center’s ballet performances, the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra. Those groups have scattered their performances to other venues in the Washington area during the Kennedy Center’s temporary shutdown.
The images of the apparent demolition plan have been incorporated into a previously filed lawsuit over the fate of the Kennedy Center, which after a disastrous year and a half under Mr. Trump’s stewardship, has had plummeting ticket sales and a talent exodus. The center was closed temporarily this week over significant safety concerns, center officials said, after a large chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling.
The crowd, pressed up against security barriers surrounding the center, enveloped the concrete pavilion in front of it, spilled out across 25th Street and onto an adjacent grass lawn. One woman was forcibly escorted away from the building by security guards wearing hard hats after defying the safety perimeter.
Many of the artists at the protest had previously performed at the Kennedy Center, including the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., which had a planned concert canceled last year amid Mr. Trump’s efforts to reshape the institution’s programming. Other performers, like the Rapid Response Choir, have been fixtures of Washington-area protests since Mr. Trump returned to office last year.
Lynda Carter, the actress who played Wonder Woman, and local officials, including Robert White, an at-large member of the District of Columbia Council, attended and spoke at the rally.
“There is no way, no how,” Mr. White said, “that while I am standing, and while you people are standing, that he is going to take this building or take this city. So I plan that I will keep fighting, I will keep screaming, and I will throw some punches if need be.” The crowd cheered.
In an interview, Mr. White said he thought that Mr. Trump was lashing out after a federal judge ordered his administration to remove his name from the center — which was named by Congress to honor President John F. Kennedy after his assassination.
“Anything that he can’t have and try to steal, he wants to destroy,” Mr. White said. “But it is important that we not let him do that.”
Organizers had previously held demonstrations against Mr. Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, but the turnout on Friday night was the largest in support of the performing arts institution. Tara Hoot, a drag queen performer and organizer of the demonstrations in support of the Kennedy Center, noted that a typical protest would draw between 60 and 100 people.
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