Photos courtesy of the Wexner Center for the Arts
In collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families and the Department of Defense, Columbus museums are laying out a warm welcome mat for military members and their families this summer. All active duty military personnel, National Guard and Reserve members and their families are encouraged to visit the museums free of charge from Memorial Day, May 30, through Labor Day, September 5.
Columbus museums that are part of the Blue Star Museum Program are the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Ohio History center. The function of the Blue Star Museum Program is twofold: it honors military personnel for their service to the United States and it allows military families to acclimate to new communities.
Families, particularly those affected by military moves, have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with Columbus by experiencing the local heritage at these three museums. Moreover, the families of deployed military members are still welcome to visit the museums free of charge while their loved ones are away from home.
At the Columbus Museum of Art, military personnel and families are encouraged to come and experience exhibitions ranging from Picasso to spin art, which features memorable vinyl album covers.
Through August 7, the Wexner Center for the Arts will host exhibit Human Instamatic by the late Martin Wong, a Chinese-American painter who captured life from the ’60s through the ’90s. The exhibit features more than 90 paintings from Wong’s lifetime.
At the Ohio History Center, families can look forward to 1950s: Building the American Dream, an insight into life in Ohio during the 1950s. Guests will be able to put their feet up in a fully-furnished ranch-style home that was rebuilt inside of the museum, listen to the radio of the past and view what the nuclear family of the ’50s was really like.
To learn more about Blue Star Museums, visit the National Endowment for the Arts.
Hailey Stangebye is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
