The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., has laid off its Social Impact team, dismantling its initiative aimed at outreach for underserved communities. Seven team members, including artistic director Marc Bamuthi Joseph, were let go, while three non-equity staff members were retained. This decision, made by HR, follows significant staff changes under new leadership that has faced criticism for dismantling elements of “woke culture.” The Social Impact initiatives, created in 2020, successfully engaged diverse audiences and promoted arts for justice and equity, but recent layoffs have raised concerns about the future of community-focused programming and civil discourse at the institution.
The Kennedy Center in Washington DC laid off its social impact team on Tuesday — the latest in a series of significant changes at the national performing arts center.
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The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., is shutting down its Social Impact initiative, which was dedicated to outreach programs for local underserved communities.
On Tuesday, seven members of the team were informed of their layoffs, as confirmed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the artistic director of Social Impact, who was also let go. Three additional staff members whose roles were not centered on equity were kept on.
In a letter sent to one of the laid-off staffers acquired by NPR, signed by LaTa’Sha Bowens, the Kennedy Center’s VP of Human Resources, it stated, “This decision was made after careful consideration and is based on the Kennedy Center’s staffing needs.” The identity of the staffer remains anonymous due to concerns over potential retaliation.
“How do you access the American promise if you don’t have access to the impulse of creativity?” Joseph expressed in a statement. “As the nation’s cultural center, the Kennedy Center holds an obligation to ask itself that question daily… to respond to the call of its namesake who envisioned an America that was ‘unafraid of grace and beauty’. Our work in Social Impact was to broaden our cultural reach and to envision that inspiration itself was a constitutional right available to ALL of this nation’s people.”
The Kennedy Center did not respond to inquiries for a statement.
Last month, President Trump removed longtime board president Deborah Rutter and Kennedy Center chair David Rubenstein before assuming the role of chairman himself. He also dismissed 18 board members and replaced them with his supporters. This overhaul resulted in numerous artistic resignations and withdrawals; opera star Renée Fleming stepped down from her position as artistic adviser to the center, and the producers of the Broadway hit Hamilton withdrew the show from an upcoming engagement, among other repercussions.
In February, Trump publicly criticized the Kennedy Center’s programming, labeling it as “woke culture.”
According to the Kennedy Center’s website, the Social Impact initiatives, launched in July 2020, aimed to “leverage the arts for non-arts outcomes to advance justice and equity.”
The Social Impact program included various initiatives, such as collaborations with individual artists-in-residence and arts groups committed to social justice, offering free arts programming for residents across Washington, D.C., and providing complimentary transportation to social impact events at the center. Future offerings included participation in the global LGBTQ celebration World Pride 2025 alongside the Capital Pride Alliance, as well as free Saturday movement classes led by groups like the Hawaiian dance company Hālau Nohona Hawaiʻi and the KanKouran West African Dance Company.
A 2024 Kennedy Center report highlighted that the number of social impact events more than doubled between 2021 and 2023, with the in-person audience scaling from just over 10,000 to more than 65,000.
The programming attracted a more diverse audience than the center’s typical offerings, engaging higher numbers of people of color, individuals under 45, and lower-income attendees according to the report; however, the overall majority of the Kennedy Center’s audience remains predominantly white and older.
One current artist-in-residence, Philippa Pham Hughes, expressed her dismay over the news to NPR. “I realize I’m a small cog in a larger machine, but it feels like yet another blow to democracy,” Hughes shared. “It’s reflective of broader issues occurring in our country.”
Hughes, who is entering the first year of a three-year residency at the Kennedy Center, emphasized the significance of the Social Impact initiative in recognizing the efforts of less mainstream artists.
“We have put in so much effort, and having the Kennedy Center acknowledge our contributions to our communities means a lot,” she stated. Hughes also noted that the organization’s role in fostering dialogues between artists and the community is crucial for strengthening civil society. “What they excelled at was building the groundwork for our democracy,” she remarked, uncertain about the continuation of her residency.
Jennifer Vanasco edited this story.