""A lot of these people were getting paid on State Department contracts in the past or government funds to go perform, because they could not get a supply and demand audience. They couldn't participate in capitalism," Grenell claimed. "Maybe they have a niche talent that is interesting, they play an interesting type of banjo.""
""Look, I think a lot of the arts programming, arts education is very smart when it's niche," Grenell added. "You can't do niche programming if you don't have your books balanced, if you don't have enough money. Everybody knows that you can't go on vacation if you can't pay your mortgage or your car payment, right? So you can't do that extra stuff. Arts as education, I'm not suggesting is always extra. But for a place like the Trump-Kennedy Center, we have to have our fiscal house in order as we do some of this.""
""common sense programming from the left, right, and center,""
More than 20 acts canceled scheduled Kennedy Center performances after Donald Trump's takeover, including a touring production of Hamilton, composers Philip Glass and Stephen Schwartz, and Grammy-winning musicians Renée Fleming, Béla Fleck, and Rhiannon Giddens. The Washington National Opera severed ties with the Kennedy Center after 55 years. Interim president Ric Grenell described some cancelling artists as "niche talent" who "could not get a supply and demand audience," claimed some performers previously relied on State Department or government funding, emphasized restoring fiscal balance amid reported declining ticket sales despite fundraising gains, and said programming will target "common sense programming from the left, right, and center."
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