AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.After the institution’s board declared it the Trump Kennedy Center, a lot of signage around the building is in the midst of a makeover.Listen · 4:28 min A sign in an entryway to the parking garage of the Kennedy Center. Since the board voted to change the center’s name to include that of President Trump, black tape has begun to cover up signage that has the old name.Credit...Caroline Gutman for The New York TimesJan. 16, 2026Precisely when it began appearing remains a bit unclear. But black tape is showing up in spots across the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.In grand halls? Yup. In nondescript parking garage entryways? Yup.On visitor maps, artistic posters and various signs, including one pointing the way to the lost and found? Yup, yup and yup.In places it looks like parts of one of the country’s pre-eminent arts institution have been redacted.Visitors began noticing the tape (some of it red, actually) this week and quickly realized what it covers up: the Kennedy Center name and former logo.Is this all part of the rebranding that began with a vote of the board last month to change the name to the Trump Kennedy Center? Yup.“The signage will reflect the bipartisan name that the board designated,” Richard Grenell, the center’s president, said in an email response to questions about the arrival of the tape. He added that “it doesn’t change the congressional directive for the memorial.”Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT