The morning after the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts abruptly closed to the public, with President Trump warning that it was in a “virtual state of collapse,” employees traded confused text messages asking whether they were expected to come into work.
An announcement had blared over the P.A. system on Tuesday telling the public to exit the main building, but as of Wednesday afternoon, they had been given no official instructions regarding the closure and how long it was expected to last.
Some staff members trickled into the building on Wednesday morning without any trouble, but security guards were posted at the center’s doors to keep the general public out.
The confusion followed a day of upheaval at the Washington arts institution.
The Kennedy Center planned to close more than two months ago for a $257 million renovation project, but a federal judge blocked its plan. On Tuesday, citing public safety, the Trump-allied board voted to shutter the building immediately.
Kennedy Center officials presented the closure as a temporary emergency action intended to protect the public, citing an incident on Sept. 4 in which a five-foot-long section of plaster fell from the ceiling of the building’s Grand Foyer during a bad storm. Roma Daravi, a spokeswoman for the center, said in a statement that the board’s decision “reflects sound judgment and a clear prioritization of safety above all else” and that “the center remains committed to pursuing a safe and efficient renovation through all legal means.”
In an email on Wednesday, Ms. Daravi said the temporary closure to the public was expected to last “until we can be 1000 percent sure that their safety is not at risk” and that “some other piece of ceiling won’t fall and kill them.”
The White House shared a glossy video with swelling music that provided a justification of the closure, pointing to problems such as “chronic water intrusion” and outdated equipment that Matt Floca, the center’s executive director, said leaves the facility “vulnerable to catastrophic mechanical failure.”
Although the main Kennedy Center building is closed, a smaller addition to the campus that opened in 2019 — known as the Reach — remains open. This week it is slated to host free performances, including a concert by an indie musician and a magic show.
The board’s vote on Tuesday — the third time it had approved the Kennedy Center’s closure — prompted objections from Democratic lawmakers, who have accused the center of using the prospect of renovations to paper over the exodus of artists, donors and audience members since Mr. Trump’s takeover at the start of his second term.
“Donald Trump only cares about the Kennedy Center for his vanity,” said Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democratic ex officio board member at the center whose lawsuit against the institution has prompted the scrutiny in federal court.
Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, lawyers for Ms. Beatty, warned on Tuesday that if the center followed through with an immediate closure, it would appear to them a “direct violation” of a court order that said the institution could not close. Judge Christopher R. Cooper found in May that the board of trustees had been “derelict” in its initial approval of Mr. Trump’s closure plan, and he has not yet considered whether the board’s second vote or third vote to close were made with sufficient due diligence.
The Kennedy Center said in a statement on Tuesday that the current closure was temporary and that the extended closure would not begin until the court gave its approval. The Justice Department, which is representing the center in court, did not respond to requests for comment about whether the closure was in compliance with the judge’s earlier order.
The closure came shortly after Mr. Trump fumed over Judge Cooper’s decision to bar the center from inscribing his name on the front of the building. In a social media post, the president threatened to cancel the renovation project if an appeals court did not allow his name to be restored.
The drama continued into the evening, as a voice echoed through the building with news of the closure and it emerged that the center’s chief financial officer, Donna Arduin Kauranen, had resigned. (Ms. Arduin Kauranen and the center did not respond to requests for comment about her reasoning.)
Abruptly shutting the doors of the Kennedy Center is far less dramatic than it would have been months ago, when touring Broadway shows were still staging productions in the center’s opera house and the National Symphony Orchestra was performing in its concert hall. Since July, when the closure was initially slated to begin, the center’s performance calendar has been largely bare and the building a mostly empty shell.
The center is hoping that its plan to keep the Reach open will satisfy Judge Cooper, who ruled in May that the institution must, by law, maintain the center as a living memorial to President Kennedy with some performing arts programming. In his order, the judge seemed to leave some room for the center to close temporarily, suggesting that the board would have authority to close it “for certain periods of time or for certain justified purposes.”
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