About the Kennedy Center: Welcome

[Welcome to the Kennedy Center - 'I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for our victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.' - President John F. Kennedy]

President Kennedy’s words resonate more strongly than ever for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the 21st century. The Center opened its doors on September 8, 1971, and celebrates its birthday each September with the free Open House Arts Festival. As always, the Center continues its efforts to fulfill President Kennedy's vision by producing and presenting an unmatched variety of theater and musicals, dance and ballet, orchestral, chamber, jazz, popular, and folk music, and multi-media performances for all ages. Every year the institution that bears President Kennedy's name brings his dream to fruition, touching the lives of millions of people through thousands of performances by the greatest artists from across America and around the world. The Center also nurtures new works and young artists, serving the nation as a leader in arts education and creating broadcasts, tours, and outreach programs.

Photos from the Open House Arts Festival

The Kennedy Center, located on 17 acres overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., is America’s living memorial to President Kennedy as well as the nation’s busiest arts facility, presenting more than 2,000 performances each year. Touring Kennedy Center productions and its television, radio, and Internet broadcasts reach millions around the world. As part of the Kennedy Center’s Performing Arts for Everyone outreach program, hundreds of free performances are offered each year featuring national and local artists; these include early-evening concerts on the Millennium Stage, dozens of performances during the annual Open House Arts Festival, and daily concerts of seasonal music in December as part of Holidays at the Kennedy Center. Since 1999, the Millennium Stage performances have been broadcast live over the Internet and digitally archived on the Kennedy Center’s website.

World premiere performances of Kennedy Center-commissioned works have been offered through an unprecedented commissioning program for new ballet and dance works. These works have been created by America's foremost choreographers—Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovich, and Merce Cunningham—for leading American dance companies including American Ballet Theatre, Ballet West, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and the San Francisco Ballet.

The Center sponsors two annual dance residency programs for young people; Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell and the Dance Theatre of Harlem Residency Program, both now in their second decade. Since 1999, the Kennedy Center has supported and produced the Suzanne Farrell Ballet in annual performances at the Center and on extended tours.

The Kennedy Center has also co-produced new operas such as John Adams' Nixon in China, and brought such international opera companies as La Scala in its first-ever visit to the United States and Deutsche Opera Berlin in a complete "Ring" cycle. The Center is currently presenting the Kirov Opera and Ballet in annual performances as part of a ten-year engagement.

The Kennedy Center presents annual festivals celebrating cities, countries and regions of the world: the San Francisco and Texas festivals; France Danse; Festival Australia; the Arts of Japan; the Kennedy Center African Odyssey; Art of the State: Israel at 50; Island: Arts from Ireland; and UK/KC, celebrating the arts of the United Kingdom. Recent festivals include The Prelude Festival, AmericArtes, (celebrating the arts of the Americas); The Tchaikovsky Festival; and the Kennedy Center Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival, another annual event now in its second decade.

Set for the Sondheim Celebration's Merrily We Roll Along.

The Center has co-produced more than 150 new works of theater since opening its doors, including Tony-winning shows ranging from Annie in 1977 to A Few Good Men, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The King and I, Titanic, Bounce, On Golden Pond, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. In April 2003 the Center launched the extraordinarily successful summer-long festival Tennessee Williams Explored, featuring new Kennedy Center productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, A Distant Country Called Youth, and the one-act play collection Five By Tenn. The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays provides critical support in the development of nearly 150 new theatrical works, resulting in premieres that included three Pulitzer Prize winners: Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, Robert Schenkkan’s The Kentucky Cycle, and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America.

The National Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center's artistic affiliate since 1987, has commissioned dozens of new works, among them Stephen Albert's RiverRun, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music; Morton Gould’s StringMusic, also a Pulitzer Prize-winner; William Bolcolm's Sixth Symphony, and Michael Daughtery's UFO, a concerto for solo percussion and orchestra.

In addition to its regular season concerts, the National Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of its acclaimed Music Director Leonard Slatkin, presents a number of variously themed festivals each season. The annual American Residencies for the Kennedy Center is a program unique to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Center. The Center sends the Orchestra to a different state each year for an intensive period of performances and teaching encompassing full orchestral, chamber, and solo concerts, master classes and other teaching sessions. The Orchestra has given these residencies in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South and North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming/Montana.

Concert Hall

The Center reaches millions of people every year through its television programs. These include Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "The Kennedy Center Honors," broadcast annually on the CBS Network; "Onstage at the Kennedy Center: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize," and other programs broadcast by public television, such as the Richard Rodgers and the Irish Galas.

In recent years the Kennedy Center has dramatically expanded its education programs to reach young people, teachers, and families throughout the nation. Each year more than 7 million people nationwide take part in innovative and effective education programs initiated by the Center, including performances, lecture/demonstrations, open rehearsals, dance and music residencies, master classes, competitions for young actors and musicians, backstage tours, and workshops for teachers. These programs have become models for communities across the country, as educators and government leaders recognize what the Center has known for years: that the arts can unlock the door to learning for young people, fostering creativity, teaching discipline, improving self-esteem, and challenging students to think in new ways, as well as offering them experiences in the joy of the performing arts.

As part of its commitment to encourage the widest possible audience for the arts, the Kennedy Center has been in the forefront of making the performing arts accessible to persons with disabilities; the recently-renovated Kennedy Center Concert Hall and Opera House are national models for public accommodation.