PAINTING BY VINCENNES SEVENTH-GRADER
ACCEPTED BY MDA ART COLLECTION

"Friends" by T.C. Blackburn

TUCSON, Ariz., April 25, 2001 - A painting by 14-year-old Troy "T.C." Blackburn of Vincennes, Ind., has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Art Collection. The Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

T.C.'s "Friends" is a colorful acrylic painting of three smiling young men who are looking at the viewer. T.C. created the painting, which is highlighted by bright blues and earthy beiges, when he was in fifth grade.

The new addition by T.C. will be exhibited at MDA's national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz., and be included in MDA Art Collection traveling exhibits. The Collection was established in 1992 to focus attention on the achievements of artists with disabilities, and to emphasize that physical disability is no barrier to creativity.

"We're delighted to have such a bright and cheery painting in the permanent MDA Art Collection," said MDA Senior Vice President and Executive Director Robert Ross. "It will undoubtedly charm all who see it as it travels to galleries and museums as part of special exhibits of the Collection."

T.C. lives in Vincennes with his mom, Angie, and stepfather, Jay Warmuth. His father, Troy, and stepmother Mary, live in Florida. A seventh-grader at South Knox Middle School in Monroe City, Ind., T.C. enjoys jet skiing, video games, music, animals and spending time with family and friends. His favorite subjects in school are math, shop and home economics. He currently serves as MDA's 2001 Goodwill Ambassador for Southwestern Indiana and Western Kentucky.

T.C. has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle wasting and weakness that affects limb and trunk muscles initially, and eventually affects all voluntary muscles.

The permanent MDA Art Collection currently comprises over 250 works by artists ages 2 to 82 and represents 45 states. Each artist is affected by one of the neuromuscular diseases in the MDA program.

Selected art from the Collection has been exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Art; Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center and Forbes Magazine Galleries in New York; Tucson Museum of Art; Bishop Museum in Honolulu; Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center; Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art; Los Angeles Children's Museum; University of California-Berkeley and Fresno Metropolitan Museum; Duluth Art Institute; Capitol Children's Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Mich.

Visitors can also send an e-postcard featuring one of a variety of selections from MDA's Art Collection by visiting the "What's New" area of the Web site.

MDA is a voluntary health agency working to defeat neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. MDA maintains a clinic for area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at the Tri-State Regional Rehabilitation Hospital in Evansville, Ind.

The Association's programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors.