At the Kennedy Center, our systemic commitment to social impact lives in our belief that the arts hold unique power in our society to build community, center joy, inspire action, and drive meaningful change. We leverage the arts for non-arts outcomes to advance justice and equity in all that we do.
These theatre workshops are free creative offering to the community around how to elevate your creative process. Workshops will be led by experts in their fields, including playwriting, choreography, and devising a solo show.
The Washington Musical Pathways Initiative (WMPI) is a talent development program for dedicated student musicians in grades 8–12 from communities that have been historically excluded from classical music and want to pursue music study in college.
John Doyle and Mick McAuley have been playing music together on the international stage for over 20 years. As multi-instrumentalist members of Irish American supergroup Solas, they combined to create part of the group’s unmistakable early sound which garnered critical worldwide acclaim.
Learn about this time honoured tradition with Indigenous/Powwow Dance Artists in these fun and informative introductory Powwow Dance Classes featuring a special collaboration class with a guest zumba instructor. While Dance Sanctuaries is open to the public, we ask all participants who are non-Indigenous to show up with a curious mind and heart and participate respectfully (for appreciation and educational purposes only).
Founded by Ukrainian professional duo Solomia Gorokhivska and Andrei Pidkivka, musicians of Gerdan bring the fire and the edge of melodic ideas and rhythms that capture the listener. The program Believe in Christmas Miracle offers a rich sampling of Christmas and seasonal music from Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
Join us for a FREE film screening in the Justice Forum at the REACH. After the kingdom of Arendelle is cast into eternal winter by the powerful snow queen Elsa, her sprightly sister Anna teams up with a rough-hewn mountaineer named Kristoff and his trusty reindeer Sven to break the icy spell.
Come sing, dance, and have a gospel-music good time as Washington Performing Art’s Children of the Gospel (COTG) choir leads us in the season’s celebration of good cheer, peace, and love.
For years, the Country Christmas Sing-Along Spectacular has consistently delivered a dazzling display of yuletide cheer. This is a sing-along you don’t want to miss.
This unique holiday show is a musical celebration inspired by the Christmas sing-alongs that Grammy Award® winner Dan Zanes and jazz vocalist/music therapist Claudia Zanes experienced every year while growing up in New Hampshire. The 21st century version of these legendary parties includes Christmas classics and also numbers from a variety of traditions, languages, and locations.
Join us for Dance Sanctuaries, a series of free movement-based classes in the REACH. Dancers are invited for three one-hour structured classes & an optional Open House Hour. This week, learn beginner through advanced Bhangra styles and choreography with DC Bhangra Crew!
The Beltway Brass Quintet is a project group conceived in 2003 by Zachary Smith of the nationally acclaimed Dixie Power Trio. The repertoire for the quintet is unusual in its emphasis on 20th century jazz harmonies and stylings.
Join us for a FREE film screening in the Justice Forum at the REACH. Frank Cross (Bill Murray) is a cold and cynical TV network president who is visited by ghosts on Christmas Eve. The ghosts give him a chance to change his ways and right his wrongs.
Be part of Washington’s most popular free holiday event, the Kennedy Center’s Messiah Sing-Along. Back by popular demand, the evening concert features conductor Nancia D’Alimonte as she leads members of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, guest soloists, a chorus of 150, and a very enthusiastic audience in Handel’s masterpiece. A family and community tradition since 1971!
Join in our annual All-Star Christmas Eve Jazz Jam, with host and vibraphonist Chuck Redd, drummer Lenny Robinson, pianist Robert Redd, bassist James King, vocalist Sharon Clark, and saxophonist Jacob Chung.
Eleven black dancers from historically white ballet companies were commissioned by èAVto create and perform a brand new ballet in just two weeks. This is their story...
10-episode docuseries
The Cartography Project seeks to use music as both a source of healing and a way to open dialogue about the future of anti-racism. The NSO, WNO, and Kennedy Center commissions composers and librettists from regions spanning the entire country to create work that responds to an event that has occurred in that region and also asks, “Where do we go from here?”
Active Hope explores how the country’s vanguard artists and arts leaders can shape this transformational, historical, and polarizing moment in history. After emerging from a global quarantine while still figuring out what the new normal is, the second season of our podcast orbits the theme of “Organizing Hope”.
Get the fascinating story behind the new play by Alexandra Palting, the 2022 Artist-in-Residence at the Kennedy Center with the Local Theater Residency Program. The piece is named for the number of letters that Alexandra’s grandparents wrote to each other during a three-year long-distance courtship between the U.S. and the Philippines.
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Triple your impact for the arts
From now until December 31, any donation you make will be matched two to one, up to $100,000, for triple the impact!
Impact Performance
We showcase visionary artists throughout the year, who leverage their profound talent to highlight issues of social impact.
The cornerstone of our Impact Performance, Millennium Stage serves to reduce barriers to engaged participation in the arts, celebrate the human spirit, and encourage intercultural understanding. Catch FREE performances Wed-Sat at 6 p.m.
Arts Across America performances explore art as a catalyst for public healing, decolonization, and genuine global change.
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Artist Empowerment
Artists are never visitors at the Kennedy Center. Our stages belong to them. We prioritize the visionary leadership of marginalized people over institutional norms and control. This gives us the ability to amplify authentic voices and honor stories that are so often silenced.
Join us for free movement-based classes on select Saturdays in the REACH. Dancers are invited for three one-hour structured classes and an optional Open House Hour. Free, pre-registration is highly recommended.
Local Theatre Residency is a curated developmental residency program for local DMV theater companies and playwrights. Hosted at the Kennedy Center’s REACH, we seek those who leverage their artistry to amplify stories that are often overlooked.
Office Hours is a curated developmental residency program hosted at the Kennedy Center’s REACH. Provided with access to studio space in the REACH, artists have the sole task of creation. Office Hours seeks artists with an interest on site-specific work and supports the ideas of playful exploration and spatial intervention.
Social Practice is collaborative, specific, and intentional. Residents engage specific communities and propose critical interventions within existing social systems that inspire debate and social change. Activations focus on the interaction between the audience, social systems, and the artist.
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Community Empowerment
We dismantle real and perceived barriers between ‘fine arts communities’ and the richly diverse communities surrounding us here in the nation’s capital. To maximize our impact beyond our walls, we humbly and continuously engage new communities through artistic expression, creative collaborations, and shared learning experiences.
The Cartography Project is a multi-year commissioning project engaging artists from around the nation to map Black dignity. The Cartography Project seeks to use music as both a source of healing and a way to open dialogue about the future of anti-racism. The NSO, WNO, and Kennedy Center are commissioning composers and librettists from across country to create work that responds to an event that has occurred in that region and also asks, “Where do we go from here?”
A conflux is the place where two flowing rivers meet and become one. èAVsits on a conflux where the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers meet. The Conflux program is a confluence of efforts where the Kennedy Center and a flagship national community partner – each with its distinct missions, values, and social impact objectives combine efforts. The result is a series of transformative programming that advances the field and maximizes our collective impact.
Impactful Connections, a new partnership with the District of Columbia Public Libraries, focuses on creating access through transportation for D.C. residents to experience free local, national, and international arts and culture programming at the Kennedy Center. Impactful Connections is a free shuttle program in partnership with the District of Columbia Public Libraries, focusing on creating access to Social Impact programming at the Kennedy Center.
Composed of leaders from around the country, with a hyper-focus on membership from the D.C. region, the Community Advisory Board Members serve as leaders, advisors, and advocates for impact-driven programming at èAVthat extends across the DC regional community.
Community Partners convene to facilitate discussion and planning for the seeding of two community-based touchstone programs with Social Impact and other Programming departments at the Kennedy Center, including artist workshop/masterclass, panel discussions, performances, presentation, and more.
The Culture Caucus is a group of 10 individuals and organizations, based in the D.C. area. The Caucus is an incubator and residency program for culture makers. We wish to make the REACH a creative home for the Caucus and for their constituencies. The Caucus works in coordination with Social Impact team to produce a variety of events, the majority of which occur at the REACH.
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Cultural Leadership
We mobilize the arts and a wide spectrum of perspectives to challenge societal norms, test the boundaries of acute progress, and inspire change that transcends the audiences directly before us.
A collaboration between the Apollo Theater, National Sawdust, and the Kennedy Center, the Active Hope Podcast explores creative thought and cultural leadership through conversations and performances. The resulting dialogue illuminates challenges and outlines strategies for the cultural field.
As we look at our outstanding cultural and artistic leaders of the last 50 years, who are the direct torchbearers of their legacies? We believe artists have a place in the leadership of this country and beyond, not just from our stages, and these 50 leaders will be at the forefront of continued transformation.
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REACH Activation
The REACH aims to both mobilize people and bring them together. To educate groups in mass, and inspire individual reflection. With bold and engaging programming and a warmly inviting atmosphere, it’s a shared space for collective healing, exploration, and experimentation across disciplines.
A conflux is the place where two flowing rivers meet and become one. èAVsits on a conflux where the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers meet. The Conflux program is a confluence of efforts where the Kennedy Center and a flagship national community partner – each with its distinct missions, values, and social impact objectives combine efforts. The result is a series of transformative programming that advances the field and maximizes our collective impact.
Join us for free movement-based classes on select Saturdays in the REACH. Dancers are invited for three one-hour structured classes and an optional Open House Hour. Free, pre-registration is highly recommended.
Local Theatre Residency is a curated developmental residency program for local DMV theater companies and playwrights. Hosted at the Kennedy Center’s REACH, we seek those who leverage their artistry to amplify stories that are often overlooked.
Office Hours is a curated developmental residency program hosted at the Kennedy Center’s REACH. Provided with access to studio space in the REACH, artists have the sole task of creation. Office Hours seeks artists with an interest on site-specific work and supports the ideas of playful exploration and spatial intervention.
These theatre workshops are free creative offering to the community around how to elevate your creative process. Workshops will be led by experts in their fields, including playwriting, choreography, and devising a solo show.
Launched as a partnership between Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group, this program offers over 400 acclaimed dance classes each week for people with Parkinson’s Disease, in more than 250 communities and 24 countries.
Learn about this time honoured tradition with Indigenous/Powwow Dance Artists in these fun and informative introductory Powwow Dance Classes featuring a special collaboration class with a guest zumba instructor. While Dance Sanctuaries is open to the public, we ask all participants who are non-Indigenous to show up with a curious mind and heart and participate respectfully (for appreciation and educational purposes only).
Moonshot Studio at the REACH celebrates creativity and the artist in everyone through hands-on art-making. The recommended age is 5 years old and above. Stop by anytime from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on (most) Saturdays & Sundays to explore our projects.
Join us for a FREE film screening in the Justice Forum at the REACH. After the kingdom of Arendelle is cast into eternal winter by the powerful snow queen Elsa, her sprightly sister Anna teams up with a rough-hewn mountaineer named Kristoff and his trusty reindeer Sven to break the icy spell.
Join us for Dance Sanctuaries, a series of free movement-based classes in the REACH. Dancers are invited for three one-hour structured classes & an optional Open House Hour. This week, learn beginner through advanced Bhangra styles and choreography with DC Bhangra Crew!
Join us for a FREE film screening in the Justice Forum at the REACH. Frank Cross (Bill Murray) is a cold and cynical TV network president who is visited by ghosts on Christmas Eve. The ghosts give him a chance to change his ways and right his wrongs.
Join us for a FREE film screening in the Justice Forum at the REACH. As the holidays approach, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) wants to have a perfect family Christmas. However, things go awry quickly.
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Support Our Work
The Center's Social Impact Initiatives are made possible due to our dedicated artists, advocates for change, and donors. Join our community of supporters by making a gift to Social Impact Programs. You can make a donation in two ways: Receive exclusive benefits when you join as a Member and designate your gift to Social Impact Programs, or make a fully tax-deductible philanthropic contribution.
