National Endowment for the Arts
News Room

NEA Makes Free Resource Available for Download by Military Families Visiting Museums This Summer

June 3, 2010

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Contact:
Sally Gifford
202-682-5606
giffords@arts.gov

Blue Star Families is a partnership among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and more than 800 museums to offer free admission to active duty military families between now and Labor Day 2010 -- including more than 40 children’s museums.  In fact, many of the Blue Star Museums provide arts education activities for children as part of their programs.

To help military families with their Blue Star Museum visits, the NEA offers a free downloadable publication, Imagine! Introducing Your Child to the Arts, which gives parents practical ways to share the arts with their children.  With a specific focus on encouraging young children (ages 3-8) to discover the arts, the guide presents parents with activities and suggestions on visual arts, music, theater, media arts, dance, folk arts and literature.

Parents planning their trip this summer should know that the Blue Star Museums cover a range of categories, from fine arts, to historical sites, as well as science and nature centers. At The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, tomorrow's engineers can take apart household appliances like stereos and computers to see how they work. The GWiz Science Museum (Gulfcoast Wonder & Imagination Zone) in Sarasota Florida introduces children and adults to science and technology with exhibits like “Mindball,” where competitors use brainwaves instead of muscles. The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, offers cell phone tours, gallery kits, and other resources to help families enjoy their foray into the fine arts.

Older and younger sisters looking at themselves in mirrors on museum wall

At the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, California, Zoe and Sophia Tillman take part in an interactive exercise about daguerreotypes, an early form of photography. Photo by Sandy Huffaker

Military families planning summer vacations can visit the Blue Star Museums map to help plan their next trip.

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