Renee Fleming & Yo-Yo Ma to Co-Host 2016 Kennedy Center Arts Summit

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced a date and preliminary details for the 2016 Kennedy Center Arts Summit, its third annual convening designed to bring thought leaders from the arts and related fields together for conversation and connection. The next Summit will be held on Monday, April 25, 2016 in the Kennedy Center Theater Lab and live-streamed on the Kennedy Center website. The event will be co-hosted by legendary cellist and humanitarian Yo-Yo Ma and the world-renowned soprano and arts advocate Rene?e Fleming, and is presented in collaboration with The Aspen Institute Arts Program and Citizen University.

This year's Summit will focus on Citizen Artistry, the idea of using the arts to influence positive change in people's lives. Together, participants will examine this idea and its application in today's society through the lens of the ideals John F. Kennedy set forth for the country during his presidency: innovation, creativity, courage, community service, and social justice. The

participatory program-including panel discussions, interactive workshops, live performances,

and guest speakers from the arts, government, and industry-will serve as a blueprint for the Kennedy Center's celebration of JFK's 100th birthday throughout its forthcoming 2016-2017 season.

"I am so pleased to partner with extraordinary artists and dear friends like Yo-Yo Ma and Rene?e Fleming to jump start an important national conversation on the inspiring ideals of President Kennedy and how we live those ideals in the arts and beyond. We are immensely proud to carry forth those ideas in our programming, and the Summit is the perfect forum and timing for this dialogue," said Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter. "This Summit, designed in coordination with The Aspen Institute Arts Program and Citizen University, builds on the success of our partnership with The Aspen Institute in 2015 and it is shaping up to be a historic event at the Kennedy Center."

The Summit is presented in collaboration with The Aspen Institute Arts Program, which was established within The Aspen Institute to develop policies and programs that strengthen the reciprocal relationship between the arts and society and to return the arts to the center of the Institute's "Great Conversation," and Citizen University, a Seattle-based organization founded by Eric Liu that is dedicated to community-building and teaching leadership in civic life.

Complete programming, additional participants, and more information on the 2016 Kennedy Center Arts Summit will be announced by early March.

Advance tickets for the 2016 Kennedy Center Arts Summit are available now. For tickets purchased before the March 25 advance registration deadline, general tickets are $125, tickets for teachers and teaching artists are $50, and student tickets are $15. Attendees may register by calling (202) 416-8420 or by sending an email to artssummit@kennedy-center.org

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