Frist Center Announces Participation in Blue Star Museums

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts will once again join Blue Star Museums, a collaboration among the National Endowment of the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 1,500 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2012. Leadership support has been provided by MetLife Foundation through Blue Star Families.  

 “Through Blue Star Museums, the arts community is extending a special invitation to military families to enjoy over 1,500 museums this summer,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “This is both an opportunity to thank military families for their service and sacrifice, as well as a chance to create connections between museums and these families that will continue throughout the year. Especially for families with limited time together, those on a limited budget, and ones that have to relocate frequently, Blue Star Museums offers an opportunity to enjoy one another and become more fully integrated into a community.”  

“As we enter the third consecutive year of the Blue Star Museums program, we are happy provide an opportunity for our nation’s service members and their families to connect with our National Treasures,” said Blue Star Families CEO Kathy Roth-Douquet. “Through this distinctive collaboration between Blue Star Families, the National Endowment for the Arts and more than 1,500 museums across the United States, military families have an unparalleled opportunity to visit some of the country’s finest museums for free.”  

During the period covered by the program, the Frist Center will feature several major exhibitions, including Metamorphoses: Drawings by Erin Anfinson, Kristi Hargrove, Mark Hosford, and Chris Scarborough in the Conte Community Arts Gallery; Constable: Oil Sketches from the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Upper-Level Galleries; Edward Burtynsky: The 

Industrial Sublime in the Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery; and Creation Story: 

Gee’s Bend Quilts and the Art of Thornton Dial and Bill Traylor: Drawings from the Collections of the High Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in the Ingram Gallery.

The Blue Star Museums program runs from Memorial Day, May 28, 2012, through Labor Day, September 3, 2011.  Free admission is available during this period to active-duty military personnel and up to five immediate adult family members.  Active duty military include Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, active duty National Guard and active duty Reserve members.  Military IDs accepted include the Geneva Convention common access card (CAC); DD Form 1173 ID Card or DD Form 1173-1 ID Card.  Admission to the Frist Center is always free for visitors 18 years of age and younger. 

This year, more than 1,500 museums in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa are taking part in the initiative, including more than 300 new museums this year. This year’s Blue Star Museums represent not just fine arts museums, but also science museums, history museums, nature centers, and 70 children’s museums. The complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums. 

This is the latest NEA program to bring quality arts programs to military service members, 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.