Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art announces their participation in Blue Star Museums, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and more than 1,300 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend 2011. The complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.

Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art has a nationally important display of international decorative art concentrating on a period from the 1860s to about 1980. More than 3,300 works are on view of Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau, Glasgow Style, Wiener Werkstätte, De Stijl, Bauhaus, Art Deco, Modern and Pop Art. A major survey of regional art, with a focus on Colorado art, is documented. More than 700 works by about 170 artists are displayed at any one time. The regional art collection has an emphasis from 1820 to about 1980. The museum also shows a retrospective of Colorado's distinguished painter, Vance Kirkland (1904-1981).

Our current exhibition, through July 31, is 15 Colorado Artists—Breaking with Tradition. In late 1948, a group of rebel artists broke from the 20-year-old Denver Artists Guild. The rebels joined with colleagues to form a modernist group called 15 Colorado Artists. “The 15” requested and got a separate, simultaneous exhibition adjoining the Denver Artists Guild exhibition at the Denver Art Museum in 1948. Works by each of the original fifteen artists are represented in the exhibition.

“We look forward to participating in Blue Star Museums again” said Shelly Bleckley, Kirkland Museum’s Visitor Services Manager. “We are very pleased to offer a small gift of thanks to our active military families.”

Kirkland Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guided tours are offered Wednesday through Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Tours are free with admission. Due to the fragile nature of the collection, children under 13 are not admitted.