15/09/2026
Yesterday I visited the Kennedy Center.
The building has been in the news a lot since we arrived, with a name change and then a return to its original name again. A decision is being made today about the future of this iconic DC building, and with that future looking uncertain, I wanted to have a look around.
Other than me and the staff, it was empty. There was a slight end of the world feeling to walking through those enormous rooms pretty much alone.
What I hadn’t realised was quite how culturally significant the Kennedy Center is. Not just to DC, but to the country. It’s so much more than an events venue.
The building opened in 1971 as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy, and the architecture and interiors alone are something to behold. It feels like a piece of cultural and interior history that should be preserved. Walking through those epic marble halls, I felt I should have had a martini glass in hand and been wearing a cocktail dress!
But, the grandeur aside, the ethos of the building is what resonated most.
It’s rooted in celebrating the arts and recognising their significance. A place to uphold traditions while nurturing the new. To bring people together. To make art accessible. And, most importantly, to treat the arts as a non negotiable part of society.
Upstairs, in the small museum dedicated to the Kennedys, I found a quote from the President that I loved,
“Art is hard work. You have to work just as hard to be a good artist as to be a good athlete or good at anything else in life.”
