President Trump introduced on social media Friday that Richard Grenell, the previous ambassador to Germany who Trump appointed as president of the John F. Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts greater than a 12 months in the past, is stepping down. Grenell will likely be changed by Matt Floca, the vp of amenities operations on the middle.
Change has been the one fixed on the Kennedy Heart since Trump fired the middle’s board in early February of final 12 months and had himself appointed chairman. Per week later amid mass artist defections that included Shonda Rhimes and Renée Fleming, Trump appointed Grenell, an in depth ally, as interim government director, a publish Grenell held till now.
“Ric Grenell has achieved a superb job in serving to to coordinate varied parts of the Heart through the transition interval, and I wish to thank him for the excellent work he has achieved,” Trump posted on Fact Social, including that after an upcoming two-year closure for renovations, the middle “will likely be, at its completion, the best facility of its form anyplace within the World!”
Information of the middle’s imminent closure got here as a shock to staff and humanities followers nonetheless reeling from Trump’s announcement late final 12 months that the board had voted to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Heart, which prompted one other wave of efficiency cancellations, together with by composer Philip Glass. The Washington Nationwide Opera additionally introduced in early January that it could go away the middle.
Grenell’s tenure was marked by controversy each step of the way in which, which Grenell met with combative defiance, typically slamming artists that criticized the middle’s choices. He additionally was identified for not granting interviews to press that he deemed unfriendly, as a substitute talking on the document solely to right-leaning information organizations.
The Kennedy Heart didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Grenell’s departure.
