WASHINGTON, United States: Officials removed the Kennedy Centre Blue sculpture from the performing arts complex on September 2. A foundation dedicated to artist Joel Shapiro will decide its future location.
The 24-foot aluminium work, titled “Blue,” had stood at the centre’s REACH outdoor area since donors gifted it in 2019. The Kennedy Centre described the sculpture as a human figure poised in mid-kick.
The National Park Service temporarily closed a nearby road early Wednesday to allow crews to dismantle and remove the artwork, according to a public notice.
A Kennedy Centre spokesperson told The Hill that the institution directed the removal. The spokesperson said the centre was grateful to Shapiro for the years the work had spent on the campus.
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The centre also said museums and cultural institutions regularly remove gifted or loaned artworks. The removal comes amid wider changes at the Kennedy Center during President Donald Trump’s second term.
His administration has pursued renovation plans and changes to the center’s signage. Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Centre board, has filed a lawsuit seeking to block some of those changes.
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The Justice Department has defended the administration’s actions in federal court. Beatty’s attorney, Nathaniel Zelinsky, has challenged the board’s handling of the changes.
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The REACH opened in 2019 as a $250 million expansion of the Kennedy Centre. The 24-foot aluminium work, titled “Blue,” has stood in the centre’s REACH outdoor area since donors gave it to the centre in 2019.
