Kennedy Center dismantles Joel Shapiro’s ‘Blue’ as battle over Trump’s remaking of Washington arts landmark deepens
By SCN NEWS
WASHINGTON — Crews using a crane dismantled the towering blue sculpture that had stood outside the Kennedy Center since 2019 on Wednesday, removing one of the most recognizable pieces of public art from the performing arts complex as President Donald Trump's leadership continues an extensive and contested transformation of the national cultural institution. The 24-foot aluminum work, “Blue,” by celebrated American sculptor Joel Shapiro, was taken apart piece by piece, with workers wrapping its arms and legs before lifting them away from the grounds overlooking the Potomac River.
The Kennedy Center said it requested the deinstallation and described the removal of donated or loaned artworks as a common practice connected with conservation and preservation. It thanked Shapiro for the years the sculpture had spent “animating” the campus and said the Joel Shapiro and Ellen Phelan Foundation will determine where the work is installed next. The center did not publicly provide a specific conservation problem with “Blue” as the reason for Wednesday's removal, and the foundation has declined requests from several news organizations to comment.
That absence of a detailed explanation has made the timing politically significant. Internal Kennedy Center documents obtained by the New York Times indicated that “Blue” had been targeted for removal following Trump's takeover of the institution. Josef Palermo, the center's former curator of visual arts and special programming, said he had previously been instructed to remove outdoor artwork because the renovated complex would receive new art. Palermo, who was laid off in March, said “Blue” had been targeted early and argued that an institution holding major artworks in trust for the public should provide greater transparency. A person familiar with the matter disputed Palermo's broader account to CNN, while the White House had not publicly explained any role by Trump in the sculpture's removal.
Shapiro, who died in 2025 at 83, completed “Blue” for the opening of The REACH, the Kennedy Center's $250 million expansion that opened in September 2019. Constructed from rectangular painted aluminum forms, the sculpture resembles a giant human figure caught between a kick, a leap and a dance movement, changing visually as viewers move around it. Shapiro described the work as representing action, risk, performance and energy — ultimately a “celebration of possibility.” Its position between the main building and The REACH made it visible from surrounding roads and the Potomac, and it became a local landmark as well as a focal point for events including National Dance Day.
The removal is the latest physical manifestation of a much broader transformation at the Kennedy Center since Trump returned to office in 2025. Trump replaced much of the institution's leadership, installed allies on its board and was elected chairman. Programming has changed, plans were advanced for an extended renovation closure, and the Trump-appointed board has repeatedly sought to add the president's name to the building. A federal judge ordered Trump's name removed from the facade in May, but the board voted again on August 13 to restore it under an expanded title honoring both John F. Kennedy and Trump, setting up another potential legal confrontation.
Those disputes have turned the Kennedy Center from a performing-arts institution into one of the most visible battlegrounds over Trump's effort to reshape Washington's cultural and architectural landscape. The administration is simultaneously pursuing a major White House ballroom and a proposed 250-foot triumphal arch, while administration lawyers recently argued that severe structural problems at the Kennedy Center could ultimately require demolition if major renovation work cannot proceed. Trump's critics see the changes as an attempt to imprint his personal aesthetic and political identity onto institutions designed to carry broader national significance; supporters argue that aging federal landmarks require substantial renewal.
Arts advocates watching Wednesday's operation rejected the idea that “Blue” was merely another object being rotated out. Michael Sebastiani of Hands off the Arts, a group formed partly in response to changes at the Kennedy Center, watched crews dismantle the sculpture and described the process as a “dismemberment.” He said the work had become a welcoming fixture for visitors and embodied the energy and joy associated with performance. The group has treated its removal as part of a larger campaign against changes to the institution's artistic identity.
Yet the factual boundary remains important. There is no public evidence that “Blue” has been destroyed. It was carefully disassembled, its components were protected during removal, and the Kennedy Center says the Shapiro foundation will determine its next location. Nor has the center publicly said the sculpture was removed because Trump personally disliked it. Reporting based on internal documents and Palermo's account links the decision to the post-takeover transformation, while the center characterizes artwork deinstallations as normal institutional practice.
What makes Wednesday's operation consequential is therefore less the fate of a single sculpture than the question of who determines the visual identity of a national cultural institution. For seven years, Shapiro's blue figure stood outside The REACH as visitors approached a center established by Congress as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. Now the artwork is gone while Trump's board fights over the building's name, its renovation, its programming and even the future configuration of the complex itself.
The sculpture may eventually stand somewhere else. But at the Kennedy Center, the empty space it leaves behind has become part of a larger political story: Trump's remaking of the institution is no longer confined to its leadership or performances. It is increasingly visible in the physical landscape itself.