Kennedy Center Removes Joel Shapiro's 'Blue' Sculpture Amid Trump-Era Changes

The Kennedy Center took down a sculpture known as “Blue” Wednesday, the latest change to the cultural and performing arts center that stirred some pushback in President Donald Trump's second term.

The sculpture, a tall, blue stick figure poised in action — as if to kick a ball or, from a different angle, having just kicked one — was designed by sculptor Joel Shapiro and installed in 2019.

The removal follows a longer-running saga with the Kennedy Center, where the Trump-aligned board is fighting in court for the right to plaster the president's name on the historic institution. It falls within a broader effort to reshape Washington to Trump's liking, including demolishing the White House's East Wing to build a ballroom, a proposed triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and a renovated golf course.

Shapiro, known for breathing life into otherwise minimalist stick figures, described “Blue” in a video posted to the Kennedy Center’s YouTube years ago as being “about action and risk and performance and energy. It’s a celebration of possibility.”

Shapiro died in 2025, and “Blue” will no longer celebrate possibility at the Kennedy Center, though it may be reinstalled elsewhere through the Joel Shapiro and Ellen Phelan Foundation.

A crane could be seen Wednesday taking down the sculpture’s appendages, the arms and legs wrapped protectively, as people in hi-vis vests worked around it in the sun.

“We are deeply grateful to Joel Shapiro for the years Blue has spent animating our campus and connecting visitors to his vision,” the Kennedy Center said in an emailed statement. “We are honored to have been stewards of his vibrant work and a part of his enduring legacy.”

Michael Sebastiani stood nearby as “Blue” was disassembled or, as he put it, “dismembered.” Sebastiani is part of the group Hands off the Arts, partly formed to push back against the Trump administration's changes to the Kennedy Center.

“Art is what makes you think, and that’s its role in life,” he said, saying the sculpture was “a very welcoming fixture, if you will, for folks coming into the city, and we’re just really sad to see her gone.”

Sebastiani said “Blue” was the mascot for National Dance Day on Sept. 19, with events held near it on a 2019 addition to the Kennedy Center campus called The REACH. “Blue,” said Sebastiani, “brings the joy and happiness that is part of that celebration.”