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.
Zoë Jorgenson is a versatile bassist, composer, and educator whose music is deeply rooted in jazz, indie, folk, and ambient genres. She has been hailed for her innovative approach to melodic bass and vocal lines, using both to weave throughout the space of a modern jazz quartet.
Grupo Fénix is a Washington, D.C.–based collective of musicians focused on preserving and promoting musical genres from Mexican and other Latin American cultures.
Join us for FREE film screenings in the Justice Forum at the REACH. Written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Ava DuVernay, Origin chronicles the tragedy and triumph of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson.
Shetrit’s music contains original compositions that elegantly fuse traditional North African music, Gnawa, Andalusian music from his Moroccan heritage, along with contemporary jazz and Mediterranean music.
Diwali is a popular Hindu festival celebrating the age-old story of good winning over evil. In tonight’s performance, Jas and Kamaljeet Ahluwalia, known as Absolute Focus, will present the joyous and jubilant raag gawati, on the santoor (a hundred stringed hammered dulcimer) and tabla (hand drums).
When you see Chatham Rabbits on stage, it’s clear why they are one of North Carolina’s most beloved roots bands. Partners in life and music, Austin and Sarah McCombie blend their personal histories and shared life into songs that people from just get.
Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin are two award-winning performing artists who have joined forces on their Smithsonian Folkways release, symbiont (2024). Blount is a renowned interpreter of Black folk music, and Obomsawin is a celebrated composer and bassist-vocalist.
Join us for a FREE film screening in the Justice Forum at the REACH. In Road Tested, Kennedy Center Honoree Bonnie Raitt performs some of her most popular material along with a number of new songs previously unrecorded in this live concert from the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California.
²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵÃâ·Ñ°æapp joins the NeuroArts Blueprint, an initiative of the Aspen Institute and Johns Hopkins Medicine, to present a series of in-depth discussions about the potential of the arts to improve our health and well-being.
The Empresarios is a Washington, D.C.–based collective of musicians and DJs who finely tuned their Tropicaliente sound over the past few years and shared this unique blend of tropical beats across the globe.
Led by the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, and the Kennedy Center’s Social Impact department, The Cartography Project is a multiyear commissioning project engaging artists from around the nation to map Black dignity
Madison McFerrin’s distinct vocal and meticulously layered stylings of a capella and self-harmonizing culminate in work that blends the genres of R&B, pop, soul and jazz, all with a sense of softness. Her genre-bending work has led to Questlove dubbing her early sound “soul-appella,” AdHoc to describe her work as “an oasis of serenity,” and The FADER noting how Madison’s “warm harmonies feel effortless.”
Join us for a FREE film screening in the Justice Forum at the REACH celebrating 47th Kennedy Center Honoree Arturo Sandoval. For Love or Country follows the legendary Dizzy Gillespie who helps Cuban trumpet genius Arturo Sandoval, his wife Marianela, and their son gain political asylum in the United States so Arturo could have the freedom to pursue his great passion: jazz.
This year is a special one for the Embassy of Malta to the U.S., as it marks the anniversary of numerous momentous occasions: Malta is celebrating 60 years since gaining independence, 50 years since becoming a republic, and 20 years since its accession to the European Union. This concert puts the spotlight on sheer Maltese talent!
Eleven black dancers from historically white ballet companies were commissioned by ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵÃâ·Ñ°æapp to 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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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. ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵÃâ·Ñ°æapp sits 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 ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵÃâ·Ñ°æapp that 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. ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵÃâ·Ñ°æapp sits 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.
Launched as a partnership between Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group, this program offers internationally acclaimed dance classes for people with Parkinson’s Disease in more than 250 communities and 24 countries.
Led by artists from Laboratory Dance Project, this workshop focuses on the principles behind the choreography and movements of the piece MOB. Ultimately, participants will apply what they’ve learned to practice the actual group choreography.
Two curious explorers enter a world made of string! Created especially for babies and toddlers, this engaging performance from Arts on the Horizon features object transformation, movement, live string music, and captivating design.
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 FREE film screenings in the Justice Forum at the REACH. Written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Ava DuVernay, Origin chronicles the tragedy and triumph of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson.
Go on a magical journey through the Land of Percussion to see and hear different percussion instruments with D.C.-based musician Uncle Devin. Through this interactive musical experience, kids and their families will discover the history of percussion and move to the beat of funky drums, Go-Go, and more.
Join us for a FREE film screening in the Justice Forum at the REACH. In Road Tested, Kennedy Center Honoree Bonnie Raitt performs some of her most popular material along with a number of new songs previously unrecorded in this live concert from the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California.
For the opening Sounds of US mainstage concert, support students in the early stages of their music pursuits in a program featuring world premiere works by Nick Bentz, Anthony Cheung, Adeliia Faizullina, Linda May Han Oh, and Hilary Purrington, performed by NSO musicians Robert Rearden, Loewi Lin, and Jennifer Mondie, as well as students of the NSO Youth Fellowship.
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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.