Kennedy Center stops free public tours

NY Times -  The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is stopping free public tours of the center, which had been a mainstay of the cultural institution for more than five decades, according to an internal memo.  In a memo viewed by the The New York Times, Brooks Boeke, the director of the volunteer program, said the center was putting a “temporary pause” on the tour program, effective Friday. Volunteers serve in a variety of roles at the Kennedy Center, but only tour guides were mentioned, instructed to stop reporting for duty “until further notice.”

The memo did not provide a reason for halting the tour program; it has operated continuously since the center’s opening in 1971, except for a one-year hiatus during the Covid-19 pandemic.  The ending of the tours comes after a volunteer tour guide was featured in a New York Times article detailing President Trump’s gutting of the iconic cultural institution. Before the memo was circulated on Thursday, three volunteers had expressed worries to a reporter that the Kennedy Center would target the tour program in retribution.