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Blue Star Museums

Georgia Museum of Art

Every summer, we participate in Blue Star Museums, a program organized by the National Endowment for the Arts that offers free admission and special discounts to military personnel and their families from Armed Forces Day through Labor Day. Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and museums across the United States. Each summer since 2010, Blue Star Museums have offered free admission to the nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve.

Although admission to the museum is always free, the Museum Shop offers a 10 percent discount for military personnel and their families. We also have an online exhibition to celebrate military artists — “Recognizing Artist Soldiers in the Permanent Collection” — which is updated regularly and includes artists who served in conflicts from the Revolutionary War through the Korean War. Each work of art includes details about the artist’s military service, from Paul Revere’s use of engineering skills to measure cannonballs to James McNeill Whistler’s expulsion from West Point for long hair and a bad attitude to war artists like John Singer Sargent and William Aylward. The exhibition also contains a link to a contact form through which visitors can submit ideas for other artists to include. You can find “Recognizing Artist Soldiers” at georgiamuseum.org, under the “online exhibitions.”

Search “blue star museums” online to find the nationwide list of participating museums when planning your summer travel.