Deborah F. Rutter will step down as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at the end of 2025 after steering the arts institution for 11 years, through three presidents and a global pandemic. One of Washington’s most prominent arts leaders, she oversaw the center’s first physical expansion, sought to diversify the artforms it showcases and opened a permanent exhibit honoring its namesake: President John F. Kennedy.
Rutter announced her decision to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees on Monday afternoon.
“I don’t feel excited,” Rutter, 68, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “If anything, I feel kind of sad. But I know that this is the right time.”
“She lives and breathes the Kennedy Center 24 hours a day,” said David M. Rubenstein, 75, the philanthropist and Carlyle Group co-founder who has been chairman of the center’s board of trustees since 2010 — and who has his own plans to step down in September 2026.