A towering stick-man sculpture on the Kennedy Center’s grounds is being removed as the venue’s Donald Trump-dominated board begins a massive renovation project at the president’s direction.
Joel Shapiro’s Blue sculpture, installed in 2019, was targeted for elimination with Trump’s takeover of the performing arts center, which the board has repeatedly sought to rename after the president.
Shapiro’s sculpture, depicting an electric blue stick figure in mid-kick, is a “celebration of possibility,” according to the artist. Shapiro died last year.
The Kennedy Center made no advance announcement of the removal plans. The National Park Service posted a street closure notice earlier this week indicating that a teardown project was set to begin before dawn and be completed by 1 p.m.
“We are deeply grateful to Joel Shapiro for the years Blue has spent animating our campus and connecting visitors to his vision,” a Kennedy Center spokesperson told The Independent. “We are honored to have been stewards of his vibrant work and a part of his enduring legacy.”
open image in gallery
open image in galleryAccording to the Kennedy Center, the artwork was removed at the request of the Kennedy Center and the Joel Shapiro and Ellen Phelan Foundation, which will determine its next installation location at a later date. A representative for the foundation declined to comment to The Independent.
Advocacy group Hands Off the Arts, which has campaigned against Trump-led changes to the institution, told fans of the piece to “say your final goodbyes to Blue, Joel Shapiro’s beloved figure.”
“Wednesday, September 2, 2026 will forever be known as the day the United States government tore down a piece of public art at the behest of a petulant crybaby,” the group wrote on Instagram. “But it won’t be the last.”
Shapiro’s piece “was installed as a site-specific work” that was “designed specifically as a joyful and welcoming feature for the public grounds of the expansion,” the group said.
The Kennedy Center has sought to characterize the removal as a routine deinstallation, pointing to the removal of Roy Lichtenstein’s sculpture Brushstroke in December 2025 after the expiration of the loan from the Hirshhorn Museum. It is currently installed outside the Portland Art Museum.
Last month, the board voted to install Trump’s name on the building’s white marble facade — again — despite court orders that have prevented the president from making any attempt to rename the landmark after himself.
Under a resolution approved by the board, the words “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” appear under President John F. Kennedy’s name, and the phrase “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund” would also be added once an endowment — also in Trump’s name — reaches $100 million.
open image in galleryTogether, those changes could mean that the building will be named: “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump endowed by The Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The board also voted to name the grounds where the building stands after Trump.
Under the resolution, that space will be called “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
Trump’s name was removed from the building this summer after U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled that Congress made it “crystal clear” that the memorial is only to be named after the assassinated former president, “and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial” based on Trump’s “unilateral say-so.”
Scaffolding and a massive white tarp that were erected to strip the metal name plates from the facade are still standing outside the building.
Only “The John F.” and part of the letter “K” are currently visible.
Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who is leading the legal battle against the Trump-led changes, filed an emergency motion last month asking Cooper to block the board’s latest vote, which her legal team called a “breathtaking act of defiance” of the court’s order.
The Department of Justice has argued that the venue will rapidly deteriorate without the support of the president — whom government lawyers have called the “sole hope” for its financial and structural survival — and could be demolished in the future if the court stops the Kennedy Center’s two-year closure, renovation and re-branding plan.
“In plain English, Defendants have not-so-subtly said: ‘What a nice Kennedy Center you have here. What a shame should something happen to it,’” lawyers for Beatty wrote in court filings last week. “This is a breathtaking assault on the rule of law. It is delusional. And it must stop.”