Twenty men and women in military fatigues huddled around a 19th-century painting of a fiery sunset at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a recent Saturday afternoon. They leaned toward the vivid picture of the Ukrainian wilderness as their tour guide spoke. The program was announced three years ago but interrupted by Covid and bureaucratic hurdles. Blake Ruehrwein, an Air Force veteran who also runs education and outreach at the Naval War College Museum in Newport, R.I., was instructing a new unit learning the ropes from some of the world’s top art experts. “Take what you learn from here and apply it,” he told the officers attending the museum workshop in early June.

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Persons: ” Alison Hokanson, “, Blake Ruehrwein, ” Organizations: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 353rd Civil Affairs Command, Men, Air Force, Naval War College Museum Locations: Staten, Newport, R.I