PHOTOGRAPH BY STATE EMPLOYEE
ACCEPTED BY MDA ART COLLECTION

"Day's End"

TUCSON, Ariz., July 3, 2003 — A photograph by Michael Lee Rabe of Carson City, Nev., has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Art Collection. Now in its 12th year, the Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

“Day’s End” presents an image of calm and tranquility at the close of a busy day. The camera captures the vibrant colors and explosive beauty of a Nevada sunset, surrounding the silhouette of a large tree.

Rabe, an employee with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office, has been interested in art for some 25 years, gravitating toward photography to accompany his love of traveling.
Rabe’s family has lived in Nevada since 1860. His love of the state’s unique desert vistas is apparent in his work, and several of his photographs appear on the State of Nevada’s Web site www.nv.gov/PhotoGallery.htm.

Rabe, 44, is affected by Friedreich’s ataxia, a disease of the peripheral nerves that causes impairment of limb coordination, with weakness and muscle wasting. The first symptoms of the disease generally appear between childhood and adolescence.

“We’re deeply honored to welcome Michael Lee Rabe’s work into the permanent MDA Art Collection,” MDA President & CEO Robert Ross said. “His contribution to our Collection will undoubtedly delight all who see it as it travels to galleries and museums as part of special exhibits of the Collection.”

The new addition by Rabe will be exhibited at MDA’s national headquarters in Tucson, Arizona. 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.

The permanent Collection currently comprises some 300 works by artists aged 2 to 82 and represents all 50 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; JFK Center at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.; Fresno Metropolitan Museum; Duluth Art Institute; Capital Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Mich.

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 Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in nearby Reno, Nev.

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