NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY
TO HOST MDA ART EXHIBIT

TUCSON, Ariz., Nov. 5, 2003 — The Northern Arizona University (NAU) Art Museum in Flagstaff will host an exhibit of more than 20 selected works from the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s nationally renowned Art Collection. The exhibit is scheduled to be in place Nov. 13, and will run through Jan. 15.

The Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases. The exhibit includes two pieces by Arizona artists.

“Ajo Historical Society” by the late Jose Carballo of Phoenix is an acrylic painting of the old St. Catherine’s Indian Mission that houses the museum of artifacts and mementos from Ajo’s past. Phoenix resident Rosalie Toth’s oil painting, “Native American with Sheep,” is a detailed portrait of a Native American woman with her arm encircling a sheep.

The NAU Art Museum constructed between 1894 and 1899 and renovated in 1989, features historic collections as well as contemporary exhibits by local, state, national and international artists. The museum is located in the historic Old Main building on the corner of Knoles Drive and McMullen Circle.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The museum is closed on Sundays and will be closed from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day. Donations accepted at the door benefit the NAU Art Museum and the College of Fine Arts student programs. For more information, call (928) 523-3471 or visit www.nau.edu/artgallery.

“We’re honored to have a portion of our Collection on display at the Northern Arizona University Art Museum,” MDA President & CEO Robert Ross said. “The artwork created by the talented children and adults represented in the Collection is a source of inspiration to all of us at MDA, and we’re grateful to have the opportunity to share these beautiful works with the visitors to the NAU Art Museum.”

The Collection’s permanent home is MDA’s national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz. Samples of the Collection can also be seen at www.mda.org/commprog/art . 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 clinics for Arizona adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix and the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center in Tucson.

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