- NEA Chair Mary Ann Carter visited Utah for the first time in a decade.
- She praised Utah's arts integration in schools and announced the "Blue Star Museums" program.
- The program offers free museum admission to military families from May 16 to Sept. 7.
SALT LAKE CITY — As they walked along the hallway on the state Capitol's fourth floor, Mary Ann Carter told Utah's lieutenant governor about a national poetry competition.
Carter, the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, was in Utah for the first time in 10 years and was touring an America 250 exhibit.
She pointed to a replica of a flag from 1776.
"One of the ones we promoted on social media was a poet, a young poet from Utah who recited 'The Star Spangled Banner' because people forget it was a poem first," Carter said.
She discussed the endowment's plans for this year.
"Between the National Endowment for the Arts Funding and our partnership with the states, we'll actually be funding over 1,200 programming events this year," Carter said.
She is particularly impressed with Utahns' support of the arts. Utah, she said, is consistently No. 1 or 2 with adult attendance of music, theater or dance productions. But, equally important, she said, she admires the way Utah integrates the arts into schools and teaching.
"(That) is something I found so valuable and promote all the time," she said.
On Wednesday, Carter visited Hill Air Force Base to announce a new NEA-funded program in partnership with Blue Star Families called "Blue Star Museums." The program offers active military and their families free admission to museums from Armistice Day, May 16, through Labor Day, Sept. 7. There are 37 participating museums in Utah.
As someone who grew up in a military family and moved many times, Carter believes the program will help children and wishes this could have been available to her when she was younger.
"You come to a new community, you want to know you are welcome. You want to know you are accepted. You want to know there's a place you can go as a family and make memories. And I think that's why the museums are so important," she said.
Her message to Americans: The arts are important in our lives. They can inspire and they can heal. It's about much more than how they look, Carter said.
"The arts are beautiful, no, they're necessary," she said. "And we have to show and make the point of why they are necessary in everyday life to every person."
