NEA allows free art museum admissions for military families

The National Endowment for the Arts has helped organize a summer-long program called Blue Star Museums that will offer free museum admission to active-duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day (May 31) through Labor Day (Sept. 6)  "to show their appreciation for those who are serving this nation."

The Los Angeles art museums currently set to participate in the program are the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Others that include art as part of a larger program are the Autry National Center of the American West and the Japanese American National Museum. The Getty's two museums are already free.

The effort has been coordinated with Blue Star Families, a support organization "by military families for military families," and so far 600 U.S. museums of all kinds and in all 50 states have signed on.

The NEA has put up an interactive website that charts participating museums state-by-state. You can find it here.

-- Christopher Knight
twitter.com/KnightLAT

Comments

[ThisIsTheBestTheyCanDo?]

This infuriates me.

We all appreciate the sacrifices that our soldiers and their families make - each and every day. We get to go to these beautiful museums because of those sacrifices... THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU!

BUT...

There are SEVERAL MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR Federal Agencies whose entire responsibility is the Military - its fighting force and their amazing families. These agencies spend more money in a single day of war than the entire yearly budget of the NEA. These agencies have workforces dedicated to the lives of returning soldiers that dwarf the staff of the NEA.

With institutions closing every day... with school arts programs vanishing. With audience participation down across the board in ALL genre's of arts... THIS is what we get from the NEA!? This is the big thinking?

Our previous administration built many programs like this. Opera on military bases... Poetry by soldiers... How many people will take advantage of these programs? How will these programs nourish our starving arts education infrastructure? How will this program raise visibility for community based arts programs that make dramatic impact in communities across the country but are severely underfunded by the NEA and state art agencies?

When is the NEA going to grow a spine and stop spending the PENNIES they have on token programs designed to do little more than protect themselves from criticism by the conservatives and win over red state senators.

These kinds of programs are important. They should be implemented. Just not with NEA dollars... no way. Enough pandering. Make Art Work already.