This summer, museums across the country joined the Blue Star Museums program to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families. Blue Star Museums is an initiative of Blue Star Families, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and empowering military families. They also aim to raise awareness with civilian leaders and communities about the many challenges of military life.
The National Endowment for the Arts, a public agency dedicated to bringing the arts to all Americans, partnered with Blue Star Families and over 850 participating cultural centers around the country to create the program. It includes children’s museums, fine art museums, history and science museums. Over 60 of the museums are located in Virginia with several in Hampton Roads.
Hampton Roads, known for its strong military presence, evidenced its pride and support for these local men and women who serve our country at a celebration of the Blue Star Museums program hosted by the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk earlier this summer. Senator Mark Warner and Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim (pictured) were there to help welcome local families and show their gratitude for their service. Refreshments were offered before guests were given a tour of the many galleries which include an impressive display of European and American painting and sculpture, a world-renowned glass collection, a rich photography program, Art Nouveau furniture, as well as African, Asian, Egyptian, Pre-Columbian and Islamic art.
The Chrysler Museum is just one example of a local participant as they showed their paintings of Renoir and sculptures chiseled by Bernini. There are other local sites which offered free admission including the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum and the Ferry Plantation House Historic Museum in Virginia Beach and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum.
The Blue Star Museums program is a great opportunity to expose families to the richness and culture that the arts provide. It began on Memorial Day and ended on Labor Day. For questions about the Blue Star Museums program, visit www.bluestarfam.org or www.arts.gov.
Read more about the program from Stephanie Himel-Nelson, Communications Director for Blue Star Families who lives with her military family in Chesapeake, Virginia (Photo credit): http://bluestarfam.org/drupal/?q=node/3106
| Kelly Copeland is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina Wilmington where she majored in Film Studies and minored in Theatre. While searching for the right position on her communication-focused career path, Kelly is interning at WCTV, the City of Chesapeake’s television station, where she is working on Channel 48 News and “Thinking Out Loud” among other programs. She’s also covering Tourism and Arts & Culture for the Hampton Roads blog. Contact Kelly at kellycplnd@gmail.com. |  |