Kennedy Center to remove outdoor 'Blue' sculpture as part of Trump's renovations

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will remove on Wednesday a towering outdoor stick sculpture known as "Blue." 

The Kennedy Center made no advance announcement of plans to remove the piece, a tall, blue metal human stick-figure, the New York Times reported. 

The National Park Service last week, published a notice of a road closure to facilitate the removal. 

The piece was installed in 2019, and the Trump administration directed the center to remove it. The Kennedy Center said that a foundation dedicated to the artist, Joel Shapiro who died in 2025, would determine where the sculpture would be displayed next. The center also noted that donated or lent works were commonly removed for conservation or preservation purposes. 

Josef Palermo, who was laid off in March as the curator of visual arts and special programming at the Kennedy Center, wrote in an essay for The Atlantic that he'd been directed to remove works from the center's permanent art collection, and President Donald Trump's renovations to the center would include new art. 

Palermo told the Times that he objected to the lack of notice of the removal and said there should be more transparency when pieces the center holds in trust are removed.