Blue Star Museums Open Their Doors to Military Families This Summer

This summer, anyone serving the military on active duty will be given free access to 24 museums in New Jersey, including the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, as part of the Blue Star Museums Initiative.

Overseen by the National Endowment for the Arts, the program extends to more than 1,400 museums nationwide, and runs from Memorial Day to Labor day, according to the program website.

Stacy Smith, spokesperson for the Zimmerli, said free admission will be granted to all in active military service and their families during all museum hours in between that period.

Additional Blue Star museums include:

• The Historical Society of Princeton
• The Montclair Art Museum
• The Morven Museum and Garden, Princeton
• The Newark Museum
• The Liberty Science Center, Jersey City

Sally Gifford, spokesperson for the National Endowment for the Arts, said a total of 1,474 museums have become involved with the program.

In the summer of 2010, when the program launched, 300,000 people toured participating museums as part of the program, she said.

"The museums see the value of the program and we are getting a lot of positive feedback from the military community,'' she said.

The NEA has offered other programs in the past benefiting military personnel, including creative writing workshops and the "Great American Voices" tour, which brought opera performers to military bases.

"We have fine arts museums, many nature centers, historical sites...science museums and more than 30  children's museums, and museums join all the time,'' Gifford said.

For a complete listing of Blue Star Museums in New Jersey and nationwide, and information on eligibility, visit www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.