Kennedy Center pauses public tours: Report

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., stopped its free public tours last week. The tours have been a tradition at the center for more than 50 years. A staff memo told volunteer tour guides to stop showing up for shifts. But just hours later, a follow-up message said the pause would only last a few days.

Brooks Boeke, who runs the center's volunteer program, sent a memo to volunteers on Thursday. It said the public tour program would go on a "temporary pause" starting Friday. About two hours later, Boeke sent another email to clear things up. She said the pause "should only be for a few days" and that she hoped to have guides "back in action soon." Only the tour guides were told to stay home — the rest of the volunteer group was not affected.

The first memo did not explain why the tours were being stopped. The Kennedy Center has offered free public tours almost every year since it opened in 1971. The only break before this one was during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. A spokesperson for the center later said the pause was part of a review of how visitors experience the building. "We are conducting a review of campuswide tour routes to ensure they provide the best possible experience for our visitors," said spokesman P.J. Elliott.

Just before the tour pause was announced, The New York Times published a story about changes at the Kennedy Center under the Trump administration. The article included a quote from Sandy Weiswasser, an 87-year-old volunteer who has given tours at the center for 18 years. She said the center felt much emptier than it used to be. "This place used to be really thriving and busy and crowded," she said. "Now it's a black hole." Three other volunteers told the Times they were worried the center might punish the tour program after the article came out.

When a Times reporter called Boeke to ask about the memo, her first response was, "How did you find out?" She then declined to say anything more. The Hill also reached out to the Kennedy Center for a comment but had not heard back at the time of this report. The timing of the tour pause — coming so soon after the Times story — raised questions about whether the two events were connected.

President Trump made big changes to the Kennedy Center's leadership last year. He removed several members of the center's board of trustees and named himself as the new board chairman. "I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees," he wrote on Truth Social. He later added that he would be "an amazing Chairman." The board confirmed Trump's role, and a new leader, Matt Floca, eventually took over as executive director.

The Kennedy Center's volunteer tour program was once very large and very popular. At its peak, it had 140 guides who gave tours in 10 different languages. As many as 400,000 visitors came to take tours each year. But the number of active volunteers has dropped sharply in recent times. On one shift last week, Weiswasser said only five out of more than a dozen scheduled guides showed up to work.