My wife passed this along:

"Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment of the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 1,500 museums across America. First launched in the summer of 2010, Blue Star Museums offers free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day, May 28, through Labor Day, September 3, 2012."

http://www.nea.gov/national/bluestarmus ... st=NY#list

From their FAQ:

How can museums join the Blue Star Museums program?

Museums that wish to participate in Blue Star Museums may contact bluestarmuseums@arts.gov, or Wendy Clark at 202-682-5451.

Who are the national partners on Blue Star Museums?

Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 1,500 museums across America. Blue Star Families is a national, nonprofit network of military families from all ranks and services, including guard and reserve, with a mission to support, connect and empower military families. To learn more about Blue Star Families, please visit BlueStarFam.org.

The effort to recruit museums has involved the partnership efforts of The American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Children’s Museums, the American Association of State and Local History, and the Association of Science-Technology Centers.

Do the museum get reimbursed by blue Star for the lost revenue? The website doesn't specify how that is handled.

Option 1, you do not join Blue Star, the soldier does not go to your museum and does not bring his family and does not buy a T-shirt.

Option 2, you join Blue Star, the soldier goes to your museum, does bring his family, and buys a T-shirt, a mug and some candy bars, and throws $2 into the donation jar.

OK I guess you answered it in a round about way.

Right. Blue Star is a marketing thing. It's about getting your name out there and getting the visitor to come to your museum instead of the other guy.

It's a marketing thing for Blue Star, too. I mean you hardly need Blue Star to spin up some publicity that says "veterans free". But by Blue Star getting their nose in the tent as it were, they get promoted too.

There are a lot of shlubs that believe publicity is about purchasing advertisements. I don't think so. A small museum will go broke buying ads. There are 1000 other ways to promote, most are free and the ones that cost money are far more effacious than newspaper ads. The handbook on that is by Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerilla Marketing. paid affil. link)