Until recently, the Kennedy Center was a venue for performing arts. Opera, classical music, jazz, folk, theatre, poetry, stuff like that. These things don’t have huge popular appeal, but they all have an audience. The Center attempts to present a snapshot of the wide spectrum of culture in the USA.
At least they used to. The president fancies himself as a connoisseur of the arts, a man with a finely-tuned sense for cultural taste. In order to enforce this, he removed the leadership of the Center and replaced them with maga fanatics to make appropriate adjustments to the programme.
The first major alteration was to add a faith group, in order to reflect the artistic input that religion offers. So far, only Christianity is being promoted. Maybe other religions will get some attention in the future. At any rate, the new leadership is asking staff to pray before business meetings.
Their first production will be Les Misérables, their patron’s favourite musical. No problem with that, but the new ticketing system is causing a stir. It’s all being arranged in the style of an election fundraiser, allocating corporate hospitality with “donors” buying blocks of seats. Corrupt hucksterism is the watchword.
Ticket sales and attendances have collapsed. All this has alienated the existing audience, without appealing to a new audience that exists largely in maga’s imagination. They are asking for a five-fold increase in federal subsidies to cover the shortfall.
These people are useless at everything.