Starting this week and throughout the summer to Labor Day, in Southampton Village and the in Bridgehampton are offering free admission to active-duty members of the military and their families.
The effort is conducted by Blue Star Museums, a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and more than 1,300 museums across America.
“Blue Star Museums may be the program at the NEA of which I am proudest,” NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman was quoted as saying in a Parrish statement. “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,” Blue Star Families Chairman Kathy Roth-Douquet said. “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.”
Blue Star Families credits The MetLife Foundation with being the lead supporter of the Blue Star Museums outreach initiative.
More than 1,324 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. The complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.
