Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter to Step Down

Her decade-long leadership of Washington D.C.'s arts complex will come to a close at the end of the year

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington D.C., attracts millions of visitors each year for more than 2,000 performances, events, and exhibits.

The President of the Kennedy Center since 2014, Deborah F. Rutter, announced her decision to step down at the end of this year.

The Center’s board of trustees has formed a search committee to identify Rutter’s successor. In November, the organization announced that chairman David M. Rubenstein would continue to lead the board through September 2026.

“After more than 10 extraordinary years in Washington, D.C., collaborating with some of the most phenomenal artists, cultural leaders, diplomats, philanthropists, volunteers, and administrators, I have come to believe it is time to pass the torch,” said Rutter. “It has been a great honor to work with the best in the world. It is time now to hand this truly unique institution to a new leader who will take the power and majesty of the arts to the next level.”

Throughout Rutter's tenure, the Center has seen earned revenue grow to $125 million, in addition to $95 million in contributed funds, $45 million in federal appropriations for the operation, maintenance, and improvement of the memorial, and a $4 million draw from the endowment in Fiscal Year 2024.

Rutter is also credited with securing Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda as the NSO’s Music Director in 2016. As part of the Center’s 50th Anniversary Season, Rutter oversaw the development and opening of "Arts & Ideals: President John F. Kennedy," a permanent exhibit exploring President Kennedy’s connection to arts and culture. She ran the Kennedy Center’s first expansion in its 54-year history — an arts facility full of studios and classrooms called the REACH.

Rutter also led the organization through the 18-month closure during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent re-opening.

Rutter has expanded programming to represent the diversity of art in America, highlighting things like Hip Hop in its programming. According to the New York Times, Rutter said the center would review the language it uses to describe diversity efforts because of U.S. President Trump's recent executive order. Other organizations in D.C. have already been impacted by the decree — like the National Gallery of Art ending its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.