The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. will be closed for a two-year renovation beginning in July, US President Donald Trump has announced.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday that the centre would close on 4 July this year in honour of the 250th Anniversary of our Country.
The move follows several artists cancelling performances at the storied institution after it was recently renamed as the Trump Kennedy Center.
Shortly after taking office, the president fired several of the board members at the centre and replaced them with allies, who then voted to make Trump chairman of the board.
The new board renamed the institution the Donald J Trump and the John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in December. New signage appeared on the building's exterior the following day.
Several musical acts, including Wicked composer Steven Schwartz and a group called Doug Varone and the Dancers, cancelled performances at the centre in the following weeks because of the name change.
On Thursday, the venue hosted a premiere screening of a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump.
The US president said there would be a scheduled grand reopening of the facility and that the renovations had already been financed.
I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for construction, revitalisation, and complete rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest performing arts facility of its kind, anywhere in the world, he wrote.
Trump lambasted the physical state of the centre and had worked with Congress to allocate more than $250 million (£182 million) to rebuild it, a part of many renovation projects in his second term.
Some US lawmakers and legal scholars have argued that, because the centre was named in a 1964 law, Congress must have a say on any name change. Democratic US Representative Joyce Beatty filed a lawsuit last December seeking to remove Trump's name for that reason.
Members of President John F Kennedy's family have also denounced the move, stating the centre was named shortly after his assassination as a living memorial.
Joe Kennedy III, a former US House of Representatives member and grandnephew of the late president, emphasized the historical significance of the venue. The debate surrounding the changes continues as the renovations are set to unfold.
