The blocked entrance to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on October 1. The center has been closed to the public since September.
Saul Loeb/AFP/via Getty Images
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Saul Loeb/AFP/via Getty Images
The Kennedy Center named Rick Canny as talent manager who worked with artists including ZZ Top and former Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, as its new artistic director. His appointment comes despite staff complaints about his business practices as a consultant for the arts institution.
According to an email obtained by NPR sent to high-level staff Thursday, Matt Floca, the center’s executive director and chief operating officer, announced that Canny would be the center’s new artistic director. Canny served as a consultant to the Kennedy Center shortly after President Trump. became president of the institution in February 2025.
Floca has no experience in arts administration, programming or fundraising, unlike chief administrators at similar performance venues across the country. He was previously the Kennedy Center Facilities Director before currently on sale in Marchand holds a degree in construction management.
Floca wrote: “Rick will advise me and the entire management team on artistic strategy, business practices, talent presentation and selection, ticketing and pricing models, media opportunities and programming sponsorships.”
Floca also wrote: “Since April 2025, Rick has worked with the Center as a consultant through his firm, Favor the Artist, including as creative lead for the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize.
Concerns About Fees and Expenses
The Kennedy Center is mostly closed, but it says it will maintain a small amount of public and educational programs while the entire closure is challenged in federal court. The former head of programming I came and left within two weeks in January.
Arts administrators across the country told NPR that booking shows for performing arts centers happens years in advance.
The Kennedy Center did not respond to NPR’s requests for comment on Canny’s nomination, but confirmed the contents of the email. Canny also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Favor the artist‘s website does not contain any information about its client list or firm history. Published listings of his professional history indicate that Canny has little experience programming the types of artists more typically booked at a venue such as the Kennedy Center, including renowned contemporary solo artists and groups, orchestras, and dance and theater troupes.
NPR obtained an internal memo written in March by Sammy Miller, then the center’s senior director of music programming, raising concerns about fees and expenses charged by Canny. NPR reached out to Miller for comment but did not receive a response.
In that memo, sent to Floca and the Kennedy Center’s human resources department, Miller said that over the course of one month in early 2026, Canny billed the center $30,000 in consulting fees. And over the course of another month, Canny had charged more than $28,000 in travel expenses and expenses, including two round-trip first-class flights from Los Angeles to Washington, DC.
The Kennedy Center did not respond to NPR’s request for comment regarding staff concerns about Canny. In a statement to The New York Times On Friday, the center said the $30,000 fee “does not reflect Mr. Canny’s current agreement” but did not provide details. The institution also declared to Times that Canny’s travel expenses had been revised.
Miller wrote that he had previously attempted to resolve his concerns through the center’s general counsel and its finance office, but that “both offices appear to be protective of Mr. Canny.”
In its recent public statements and court filings, the Kennedy Center has repeatedly claimed to be on one’s last legs. Last month, Trump said the arts institution had lost “hundreds of millions” of dollars. Trump has provided no evidence to support this claim.
The Kennedy Center remains closed to the public while Trump and the center’s board of directors, most of whom were hand-picked by the president, fight in federal court to shutter the institution for two years due to a large-scale renovation. Last month, Trump threatened to demolish the center if its name is not displayed prominently on the building.
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