The abrupt announcement by President Trump that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts would close this summer for a two-year construction project plunged the Washington cultural institution into uncertainty Monday, raising questions about where its orchestra would play and what would happen to its subscribers and its hundreds of employees.
“We’re kind of in shock right now,” said Anne Vantine, the president of a union local that represents box office workers. She said she had spent much of the night after the president’s announcement fielding calls and texts from Kennedy Center employees who were fearful of losing their jobs.
Leaders of the National Symphony Orchestra, who had not joined an exodus of performers protesting Mr. Trump’s actions at the center — which included the Washington National Opera — told its musicians that the center had assured them it would help find other venues where they can perform while the renovation takes place.
“The Center’s administration is committed to the National Symphony Orchestra and its role in Washington, D.C. and beyond,” the officials, Joan Bialek and Jean Davidson, said in a note to musicians, orchestra staff and the orchestra’s board of directors. “We are now working on a formal plan and will share more with you in the weeks to come.”
Mr. Trump’s announcement asserting that the center was dilapidated and needed to be closed and renovated into a “new and spectacular Entertainment Complex” caught center executives, patrons, musicians, and even some members of the institution’s board of directors by surprise. The closing date, on July 4 as the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, is just five months away.
His approach is a marked shift from the painstaking way cultural institutions typically approach a project like rebuilding an established concert hall. The key, several orchestra executives said, was to develop step-by-step plans to minimize the disruption for audience members, contributors and orchestra members.
“We had planned for years in advance of our construction,” said Deborah Borda, who served as president and chief executive of the New York Philharmonic during the $550 million rebuilding of what is today David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. “It was very difficult and it was hard on the orchestra.”
Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump appointed to lead the Kennedy Center, has described the closure as a temporary, strategic move intended to accelerate necessary renovations on a “decrepit” building. In an email to employees on Sunday, he promised that more clarity on “staffing and operational changes” would be coming.
The decisions have the potential to affect a raft of workers, including musicians, actors, stagehands, artistic programmers, security personnel and specialists in costuming, hair and makeup. It was unclear whether the center’s marquee event — the Kennedy Center Honors, which Mr. Trump hosted in December — would move forward during the shutdown.
A spokeswoman for the Kennedy Center declined to comment on how future programming and the current staff would be affected by the closure.
Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center from 2001 to 2014, said that when he ran the institution, he was intent on finding ways to keep the building open during significant renovations because of the potential cost of a closure. In 2002, the center expanded its garages — a project that presented a major challenge because they are underneath the building — and he resolved not to miss a day of performances. Closing an arts institution is risky, he said, because it can mean losing staff and dedicated patrons.
“When you shut down, not only do you lose all your ticket sales, but your donors wander away,” he said. “They don’t just sit at home waiting for those two years to pass.”
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The Kennedy Center’s theaters have been emptier than usual since the administration installed onto the board of the directors Trump loyalists, who then made him their chairman. They later voted to add Mr. Trump’s name to the building’s marble facade, above the name of the assassinated president who is meant to be memorialized by the building.
Prominent artists like the acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming responded by pulling out of performances. Philip Glass, the American composer, told the National Symphony Orchestra that he was withdrawing a symphony he had written for it that honored Abraham Lincoln.
Still unclear is what arrangements, if any, have been made with the several productions that had already been booked and were scheduled for performances after July 4 — or how the center will handle audience members who have already purchased tickets. At least three touring Broadway productions were set for runs at the center: “The Outsiders,” “Back to the Future” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.” A children’s musical based on the Jim Henson show “Fraggle Rock” was slated to run through July 26.
One orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, said in a statement on Monday that it was going ahead with a planned concert at the center in March.
“They are performing in Washington, D.C., as part of a US tour and in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States,” the Vienna Philharmonic said. “The concerts on this tour are a musical greeting from Austria to all music lovers.”
David C. Bohnett, a former chairman of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, said that the center needed to take care that “patrons, donors and artists stay connected to the institution so when it reopens the momentum can continue.”
“That’s going to be the big challenge here,” he continued.
When the project to rebuild what would become Geffen Hall began in late 2020, New York Philharmonic leaders created a schedule that permitted the orchestra to move from Alice Tully Hall to the Rose Theater to Carnegie Hall, ensuring that at least some show would go on. Six crew members were assigned to pack up 30 cases of instruments and equipment and load them into a 24-foot-long truck. And the Philharmonic juggled thousands of subscriber seats to make sure that these patrons — the ones who are the financial lifeblood of any orchestra — had seats in the ever-changing roster of performance spaces.
Ms. Borda said that Kennedy Center executives should expect to encounter the same kind of problems — but would have precious little time to lay out plans to minimize disruptions for audiences and musicians.
“What are the major obstacles?” Ms. Borda said. “Let me count the ways. Where are they going to go? They have to move all their subscribers.”
Gianandrea Noseda, the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, did not respond to a request for an interview. The conductor, who just last week said he was trying to ignore the political turmoil around him and focus on his music, was described by associates as surprised by the announcement.
Orchestra leaders said they were hopeful about finding places to play while the work takes place. But it may not be easy, with or without help from the center, as it faces competition from other organizations that had been at the venue.
“I’ve got my venues lined up for 27 and 28,” said Francesca Zambello, the artistic director of the Washington National Opera. She said she had four venues lined up but could name only one for now: Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University, where two operas will be performed this spring: Scott Joplin’s “Treemonisha” and Robert Ward’s “The Crucible.”
“As sales got worse and worse, I knew they were getting more nervous,” she said. “Last April, we thought the Kennedy Center might close, we started exploring physical spaces so we knew where to go if they shut down. We were just being proactive.”
Ms. Vantine, the union local president, said the future of the jobs of box office workers is unclear. Some have worked at the center for more than two decades.
“It’s not just livelihoods,” she said. “They’ve dedicated their lives to the Kennedy Center.”
Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, said his organization always makes a point of doing renovation work when there are no performances scheduled.
“Performing arts companies as a rule want to stay open if at all possible in order not to lose their audiences,” he said. “Being closed for two years would make it very difficult for any performing arts organization to maintain its audience. And without an audience, we can’t exist.”
Shawn McCreesh contributed reporting from Washington.
Adam Nagourney is the classical music and dance reporter for The Times.
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