BOWIE ARTS CENTER AT ERSKINE COLLEGE TO HOST MDA ART EXHIBIT

“Inner Landscape”

TUCSON, Ariz., April 1, 2008 - Bowie Arts Center at Erskine College in Due West will display 38 selected works from the Muscular Dystrophy Association's renowned Art Collection for a month this spring. This is the debut of the exhibit in the Palmetto State.

"Transcending Barriers: Selections from the MDA Art Collection" will be on exhibit from April 18 through May 17 at the center, on the campus at Two Washington St.

The exhibit will feature artwork by youth and adult artists from across the country who challenge the obstacles imposed by neuromuscular diseases. Included are works by three South Carolina artists: Karen Frazier of Rock Hill; Diane Louise Scher of Charleston; and Angelo Sciulli of Lancaster.

Featured selections include traditional acrylics, oils and watercolors, as well as digitally enhanced media, mixed media, photographs, marker art and wire sculpture.

"Bowie Arts Center is honored to be able to share these inspired pieces with the Due West region, and the faculty, staff, students and visitors at Erskine College," said Jan Walker, director of the Center.

Erskine's faculty includes Brad Christie, an English professor who is the father of former MDA National Goodwill Ambassador Luke Christie. Luke attends Dixie High School in Due West, and also serves as MDA's 2008 goodwill ambassador to Harley-Davidson Motor Co., a major MDA sponsor.

Luke was instrumental in bringing the MDA art exhibit to the campus. "When Luke visited the center, he immediately saw its potential as a prime viewing venue for the collection's first visit to South Carolina," Walker said. "We are so pleased he arranged with MDA to make this wonderful exhibit accessible to the public."

"It's a great honor to have a portion of our MDA Art Collection on display at Bowie Arts Center," MDA President & CEO Gerald Weinberg said. "We're inspired by the talented children and adults who have contributed to the Collection and delighted to share their remarkable works with the people of South Carolina and those who visit Erskine College."

About Bowie Arts Center and Erskine College

The Bowie Arts Center, opened in 1995, is a 14,000-square-foot museum and gallery. The center features a unique collection of antique mechanical musical instruments, clocks, decorative arts, glass and porcelain surrounded by appropriate furnishings from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Also on display is a collection of Edward S. Curtis photogravures and old photographs of Abbeville County.

Erskine College was founded in 1839. It is the oldest four-year church-related college in South Carolina. The campus, which has a student body of 600, and Due West are listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their buildings that date back to colonial and Civil War times.

About MDA's Art Collection

The Collection's permanent home is MDA's national headquarters in Tucson. Samples of the Collection also can be viewed in the Art Collection's online exhibit. 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 Collection currently comprises some 350 works by artists aged 2 to 82 and represents all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Each artist is affected by one of the more than 40 neuromuscular diseases in MDA's program.

Selected art from the Collection has been exhibited at the Art Museum of Western Virginia in Roanoke; 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 more than 40 neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. MDA maintains clinics for area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston; Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia; and Stanburg Neurological Services in Spartanburg.

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