Blue Star Museums To Offer Free Admission To Military Personnel & Families This Summer

Blue Star Museums, a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and more than 600 museums across America, will offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day Monday (May 31) through Labor Day Monday (September 6), 2010.

The participating 600 museums in all 50 states and the District of Columbia represent a broad range of art, history, science, and cultural topics. Blue Star Museums free admission program is available to active duty military and their immediate family members (military ID holder and five immediate family members), which includes active duty Reserve and active duty National Guard. Some special or limited-time museum exhibits may not be included in this free admission program.  For questions on particular exhibits or museums, contact the museum directly.

Twenty-three of Connecticut’s museums have been named Blue Star Museums. They are The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Barker Character, Comic & Cartoon Museum in Cheshire, The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, The Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, Danbury Museum & Historical Society Authority, Fairfield Museum & History Center, The Golden Age of Trucking Museum in Middlebury, The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, Imagine Nation Museum in Bristol, Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Mattatuck Museum Arts and History Center in Waterbury, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Canaan Historical Society, Norwalk Museum in South Norwalk, Old Tolland County Jail Museum in Tolland, Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich, Stamford Historical Society, Stanley-Whitman House in Farmington, Stepping Stones Museum for Children in Norwalk, Torrington Historical Society, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, and Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, also in New Haven.

The complete list of participating Blue Star Museums is available at www.arts.gov.

This is the latest Arts Endowment program to bring quality arts programs to the military, veterans, and their families. Other NEA programs for the military have included Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, Great American Voices Military Base Tour, and Shakespeare in American Communities Military Base Tour.