Kennedy Center Honors to Move to Capital One Arena

The Kennedy Center has scheduled its 2026 Honors ceremony for Dec. 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, moving the event outside its longtime home for the first time, the institution announced Friday. The ceremony is set to take place at the downtown arena rather than the Kennedy Center’s Opera House, where the annual awards have been held since they began in 1978. The Kennedy Center’s main building has been closed since Sept. 15 while safety assessments are underway and renovations are planned. The center’s executive director, Matt Floca, told a court the closure would be reassessed week by week. The Kennedy Center has not said whether the building will remain closed through the ceremony, so the venue announcement does not establish what its status will be in December. The center’s board cited safety concerns, including a partial ceiling collapse in the Grand Foyer, in supporting the closure. The legal dispute over President Donald Trump’s effort to add his name to the building has also become part of the debate over the institution’s future. A federal judge has blocked the proposed name change without congressional approval, according to reports.