NEA Blue Star

Museums Program Is Back

Blue Star Museums, a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and more than 1,300 museums across America, has returned for the second year to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2011. Anyone holding a military ID, and up to five immediate family members, will be admitted for free.

Active duty military includes Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and active duty National Guard and active duty Reserve members.

 “Blue Star Museums may be the program at the NEA of which I am proudest,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “Blue Star Museums recognizes and thanks our military families for all they are doing for our country, and simultaneously begins young people on a path to becoming life-long museum goers.”

“Last year the success of the inaugural year of the Blue Star Museums program showed that partnerships between the nation’s museum and military communities are a natural,” said Blue Star Families Chairman Kathy Roth-Douquet. “We are thrilled that 300,000 military family members visited our partner museums in the summer of 2010. We hope to exceed that number this year as the military community takes advantage of the rich cultural heritage they defend and protect every day.”

This year, more than 1,324 (and counting) museums in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa are taking part in the initiative, including more than 500 new museums this year. Museums are welcome to join Blue Star Museums throughout the summer.

The complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/BlueStarMuseums.

Among the Connecticut museums participating this year are the following: The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield; American Clock & Watch Museum, Bristol; Barker Character, Comic & Cartoon Museum, Cheshire; Barnes Museum, Southington; Bellarmine Museum of Art, Fairfield; Butler-McCook House & Garden, Hartford; and Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk.

Also, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford; CTSSAR Jonathan Trumbull War Office, Lebanon; CTSSAR Nathan Hale School House, New London; CTSSAR Nathan Hale School House-East Haddam, East Haddam; Danbury Museum & Historical Society; Fairfield Museum and History Center;  Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme; Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford; and Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington.

Als,m The Imagine Nation Museum, Bristol; Jonathan Trumbull Jr House Museum, Lebanon; Keeler Tavern Museum, Ridgefield; Kidcity Children’s Museum, Middletown; Lebanon Historical Society Museum; Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London; The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford; Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, Mashantucket; The Museum Arts and History Center, Waterbury; Nathan Hale Homestead, Coventry; New Britain Museum of American Art; New Canaan Historical Society; New England Civil War Museum, Vernon; New London County Historical Society & Shaw Mansion; New London Maritime Society; and Norwalk Museum, South Norwalk.

Also, Old Tolland County Jail Museum, Tolland; Stamford Museum & Nature Center; Stanley-Whitman House, Farmington; Stepping Stones Museum for Children, Norwalk; Timexpo: The Timex Museum, Waterbury; Unionville Museum; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; and Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven.