Update 3/31: Despite the $25 million in federal aid allocated to the Kennedy Center, the performing arts hub announced it will be furloughing 60 percent of its administrative staff from April 6 through at least May 10, in addition to the 725 hourly and part-time employees who have already been laid off.

“It is imperative that we scale back the entire institution’s personnel costs during this time of closure and dearth of ticket income,” The Kennedy Center says in a statement. “All of these choices are difficult, though absolutely necessary for us to re-employ staff and musicians when we can resume our programming and bring audiences back to the Center in the months to come.”

With ticket revenue and donations constituting 80 percent of the Kennedy Center’s annual operating budget, the institution says it would likely run out of cash (even with the federal dollars) by July if it did not make changes to its financial model.

The institution also laid out how it will spend the $25 million federal dollars with the majority going toward compensation and benefits for remaining employees, per a Kennedy Center release. The remaining staff consists of box office, finance, marketing, and development employees, and all furloughed employees will continue to receive full healthcare benefits.

Update 3/29: Despite the infusion of federal funds, all members of the National Symphony Orchestra have been furloughed. “It is an unsustainable strategy to pay musicians to stay at home during this forced and still undefined quarantine period,” Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter said.

The orchestra’s union has filed a grievance challenging the action. “We’re trying to understand why at this point the ax has fallen on musicians when we don’t believe there’s a real reason to do so,” said Ed Malaga, president of the Metropolitan Washington D.C. Federation of Musicians.

Original: 

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will receive $25 million in federal dollars as part of the $2 trillion bill aimed at blunting the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis on countless numbers of Americans and businesses.

The Kennedy Center closed its doors on March 13 and has cancelled all performances and public events through May 10, extending the art center’s initial closure through March 31 by more than a month.

In a press conference Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump defended the inclusion of the Kennedy Center in the emergency relief provisions, saying the center has “suffered greatly” since its closure earlier this month, despite his and other Republicans past opposition to funding arts programs through the bill.

“They do a beautiful job, an incredible job,” Trump said. “They do need some funding, they have tremendous deficits that have built up.”

The initial bill included a provisional $35 million for the Kennedy Center, which was later decreased to $25 million in negotiations between congressional Democrats and Trump.

“The ability to deliver our mandated mission is at risk,” the Kennedy Center says in a statement, released before the U.S. Senate’s approval of the bill late Wednesday night. “As a result, federal relief funding is the only way we will be in a position to reopen the nation’s cultural center our government officials tell us it is safe to do so.”

The Kennedy Center says it employs nearly 3,000 people, including ushers, bartenders, and parking attendants, and provides compensation to more than 1,000 artists.