Since taking over as president of the Kennedy Center, Ric Grenell is already making an impact.
He has eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs, saving $2.5 million per year, and said the finances at the center were woefully mismanaged.
“What the heck is the Kennedy Center doing funding a group called ‘Social Impact’ when we have $0 in the bank and $0 in reserve?” Grenell told the Washington Reporter.
Grenell has also cut the department’s “Culture Caucus,” saving $300,000 more, the Reporter said.
“For the last several months before I got to the Kennedy Center, all staff payroll was being done through debt reserves,” Grenell said. “Our new CFO is trying to renegotiate with [the] bank. But at the end of the day, what my management is doing for the Kennedy Center is going through every department, questioning the number of people and the mission for each department, and trying to get us refocused on a commonsense mission: bringing arts and entertainment to the Kennedy Center that actually sell tickets.”
Previous administrations had spent too much money on programming that didn’t bring in any money, Grenell said.
“My solution is to bring in common sense programming that brings in enough money to use that money for niche programming in the future,” Grenell told the Reporter. “No matter what the programming is, if it doesn't sell enough tickets, then we’d better have a whole bunch of money in the bank to justify the arts education outreach.”
Grenell said his job at the Kennedy Center is to make sure a fiscally sound policy is in place.
“I think it's actually criminal for leadership to spend so wildly while asking the public to pay for programming,” Grenell said.
The mission of the center, to be a living monument to President John F. Kennedy, is something he believes in, he said.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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