The John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, already mired in controversy over its temporary closure for a renovation project and legal battles surrounding the venue's renaming after President Donald Trump, is undergoing another significant power shift. Email correspondence obtained by The Washington Post reveals that the institution's newly appointed artistic director, Rick Canny, is a Trump-era insider who has been working as a consultant for the center since the president's takeover. The correspondence provides a detailed inside account of how the center's day-to-day operations are being reshaped under its new leadership.

Canny brings a long resume in artist management and entertainment to the role, having served as a consultant before being promoted to his current position. The path that led to his tenure was detailed in an email from a Kennedy Center spokesman. Notably, his new agreement lists him as artistic director "in a designated executive consulting capacity" rather than as an official employee — an arrangement that places him at the center of the institution's transformation while keeping him outside its formal staff structure.

Among the most consequential projects Canny has taken leadership on is the transition of the center's ticketing system to an online platform, along with plans to relocate the Kennedy Center Honors to Capital One Arena, the downtown Washington venue that is home to the NBA's Washington Wizards and the NHL's Washington Capitals. In a March 30 email to Donna Arduin, then the center's chief financial officer, Canny described the various assignments he had been handling for the Kennedy Center, including a proposed agreement with Ticketmaster, one of the largest ticketing companies in the United States. The institution is currently in the process of moving away from Tessitura, a ticketing system widely used across performing-arts organizations, to Ticketmaster — a switch that would set the center apart from many of its peer institutions and that Canny believes will streamline operations.

In that email, he referenced "many or most of the terms of the deal." He also signaled an intent to prioritize larger-scale events and opportunities he viewed as capable of generating more revenue for the center, while forgoing what he considered low-hanging fruit, such as podcasts and book signings. That outlook amounts to a revenue-first approach to the institution's programming calendar.

"We need to stop 'short order cooking' and get to the renovations," he wrote, referring to the shuttered building and its major renovation overhaul. "We don't need passion projects. This is business."

Canny also made clear that he sought greater authority within his role. Writing to Arduin, he suggested he could relieve Matt Floca, the center's executive director, of a substantial workload. "I can take so much off his shoulders and his plate," Canny wrote. "But he needs to empower me." Floca ultimately granted Canny additional responsibilities, including overseeing programming and restructuring internal communications.

A Kennedy Center official with more than a decade at the institution, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Washington Post that the ticketing system transition is slated to begin on October 19, a date that will mark the first tangible step of the operational overhaul. The official also said Canny has been critical of box office operations and prefers digital alternatives such as kiosks. "He had always said that … they're useless, they're not good at it. We don't need people. We can put out kiosks. It should all be done online," the official said. A shift of that kind would move the center away from the staffed box-office model that has long been a fixture of major performing-arts venues.

Recently, two dozen box office staff members were laid off, seemingly as a result of Canny's plan to phase out box office operations — the most visible staffing change connected to the overhaul so far. With the ticketing transition, the proposed Ticketmaster agreement, the planned Honors relocation to Capital One Arena, and the renovation of the shuttered building all pending or underway, each offers a concrete marker of how far the restructuring reaches.

The email correspondence was reported by The Washington Post, and this article originally appeared via Alternet.