“The Kennedy Center’s president, Deborah Rutter, suggested that changes are coming to the country’s busiest arts center, including raising the profile of living composers and artists, exploring a new format for the center’s free venue and nurturing its affiliate symphony and opera programs,” writes Peggy McGlone in Wednesday’s (10/15) Washington Post. “ ‘I grew up loving Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, but I am compelled by work that is created today. We need to expand that. We need to take more risks,’ Rutter told a crowd of more than 150 at the National Press Club on Wednesday…. Rutter began with a 20-minute speech that outlined the power of art to explain and understand the world … followed by a half-hour of questions that touched on the importance of cultural diplomacy and her early experiences in the nation’s capital…. Rutter noted that the $100 million expansion of the Kennedy Center (the groundbreaking ceremony is Dec. 4, with a tentative opening in 2017) will create informal spaces to encourage participation and interaction with artists. She cited these spaces when asked whether the Millennium Stage, the free venue, will continue but probably in ‘a new format. As with anything that is innovative and new, it needs to grow and evolve,’ she said.”
Posted October 17, 2014
