For more than 47 years, a D.C.-area family has made the medals for the Kennedy Center Honors — gold-plated medallions outfitted with satin ribbons in rainbow colors and presented to luminaries including Al Pacino, Johnny Cash, Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead.
James Baturin, an 86-year-old retired marking device manufacturer, said he, his wife, Mila, and their two kids assembled more than 255 awards — mostly from the kitchen countertop of their home in Bethesda, Maryland — since the Kennedy Center Honors began in 1978.
That relationship abruptly ended earlier this month, just days before President Donald Trump announced the first class of Kennedy Center honorees under his leadership of the arts complex, which will go to glam metal band Kiss, Broadway and West End star Michael Crawford, country music legend George Strait, actor Sylvester Stallone and singer Gloria Gaynor.
In a letter reviewed by The Washington Post, the Kennedy Center thanked the Baturins for their partnership and craftsmanship and said that the center would move in a different direction. “As the Kennedy Center looks toward the future and embarks on a new chapter, we will be transitioning to a new partnership for the creation of the Honors medallions,” according to the letter, which was dated Aug. 6 and signed by Matthew Winer, then-senior director of Broadcast Media & Special Programs.
The letter did not elaborate on a new vision or vendor for the awards. As The Post reported Tuesday, the center has contacted the jeweler Tiffany & Company to redesign the medallion, which hasn’t changed since it was designed for the first honors by New York artist Ivan Chermayeff. It is unclear what changes the center hopes to make to the medallions; Tiffany & Company and the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a statement to The Post, Winer — who has since left the Kennedy Center — acknowledged the contributions of the Baturins and said preserving the medallion design was essential to the legacy of the honors. “Jimmie and Mila’s artistry became a cherished part of that legacy, and I am deeply grateful for their care, dedication, and partnership,” Winer said. “Honorees value these medallions not only for their beauty, but because they are rare, one-of-a-kind symbols of a singular contribution to the arts. Changing that design would be disappointing, as it would diminish the history, tradition, and legacy these medallions have represented for generations of artists.”
The news didn’t come as a surprise, Baturin said. “We suspected something would happen as soon as the president decided he was going to take over the Kennedy Center.”
Since Trump’s takeover of the arts institution in February, the Kennedy Center has faced waves of backlash and boycotts from performers, arts leaders and patrons, while suffering staff resignations and layoffs.
The news of the Baturins’ ouster, which began circulating on social media earlier this week when family members spoke out, produced yet another wave of criticism.
“This is my cousin Jimmie …” Grammy-award winning singer Melissa Manchester wrote Wednesday in a post on Threads. “I congratulate him for his important part in serving our country by helping to pay tribute to the wonderful variety of artists representing the best of the USA.”
Each year, the Kennedy Center names five individuals or groups to honor for their lifelong contributions to the arts in a multiday event that concludes with a ceremony where fellow artists toast them with speeches, songs, videos and performances. The simple, elegant medallions presented to honorees include a necklace of rainbow ribbons decorated in the front by three 22.5-karat gold plates over top-grade engravers brass. One is inscribed with the words “Kennedy Center Honor,” one with the date of the ceremony and one with the name of its respective honoree.
Months of work goes into their creation, Baturin said — from receiving the announcement of honors recipients, usually around July, to delivery of the finished medallions between late November and early December, before the ceremony. The process begins with construction of the necklace’s individual parts, which are made and cut by a machine and then finished by hand, Baturin said.
“We made every part of it,” he said. “These ribbons were all alike, and they had to be perfect and that’s what we tried very hard to do.”
Mila said their children — Evan, 41, and Jesse, 35 — had been involved in the process since they were babies. “We had hopes for this to be part of our family’s legacy.”
The medallion’s rainbow ribbon is often mistaken for representing LGBTQ+ pride. Indeed, the rainbow flag debuted at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade in 1978. But in the case of the medallion, the colors are meant to represent the “spectrum of many skills within the performing arts. Singing, dancing, and so on,” designer Chermayeff told The Post in 2008.
They’re hefty pieces of jewelry that stand out on a black tuxedo or dress, which Chermayeff said was intentional.
“They are a sizable thing, instead of a coin that sits on a desk,” he said in 2008. “So they have a presence for the people who receive them.”
Chermayeff, who died in 2017, also created the logotype for the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress logo, which combined a book and flag.
Baturin said he doesn’t know who will take up the job of creating this year’s awards. “I would think, and I’m just guessing, that [Trump] probably is going to somebody that does ribbon awards.” he said. “But we don’t know everything that’s going on there now — we’re not included anymore. And the people that we dealt with are all gone.”
In all their decades making the medallions, Baturin said he and his family had never been invited to the marquee ceremony — though Mila attended in 2021 as a guest of Manchester, who was presenting Bette Midler with the honor.
Then last year, before Trump’s takeover and their partnership with the Kennedy Center ended, Baturin said he and Mila were invited to a luncheon for the recipients, which included Billy Crystal, Queen Latifah and Dionne Warwick.
That day, they stood up and were honored by more than 500 people in the room.
“It was unbelievable,” Baturin said as he recalled Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) approaching him and his wife later during the ceremony.
“She said, ‘My husband and I never knew where these awards came from — until now.’”
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