MDA ART COLLECTION -- FIVE YEARS OF FOCUSING ON ABILITY
TUCSON, Ariz., August 1997 -- The MDA Art Collection this month celebrates five years of showcasing the creations of talented people with disabilities.
Pieces from the collection, which features some 160 works by children and adult artists affected by neuromuscular diseases, have been seen by an estimated half a million people in exhibits across the country.
The MDA Art Collection was established by the Muscular Dystrophy Association in 1992 to focus attention on the achievements of artists with disabilities, and to emphasize that physical disability doesn't diminish creativity.
Since the arrival of the collection's first piece in August 1992 -- a paper collage called "Amusement Park" by Andrew Cameron of Temple, Texas, then 9 -- the permanent collection has grown to encompass works created and donated by artists aged 2 to 82, representing 38 states. Each artist is affected by one or another of the 40 neuromuscular diseases in MDA's program.
"We originally conceived of the Art Collection as a meaningful way to decorate MDA's national headquarters in Tucson," MDA Senior Vice President and Executive Director Robert Ross said. "It quickly grew far beyond our expectations and became an important venue for the abundant talents of Americans with neuromuscular disorders."
In addition to the permanent display in the MDA headquarters building, selections from the collection have been exhibited at more than 30 sites across the country, including the Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center and Forbes Magazine Galleries in New York; the Capital Children's Museum in Washington; the Los Angeles Children's Museum; the Dallas Museum of Art; and the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix.
"Under the Aloha Sea," a marine life mural created by 11 youngsters with muscular dystrophy under direction of Hawaii environmental artist Wyland, toured the country in 1994, and was seen by about 100,000 museum visitors.
Exhibits have been held this summer in Nashville, Tenn.; Fresno, Calif.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Los Angeles. Scheduled for fall are exhibits in Dearborn, Mich., and Evansville, Ind. A full touring agenda is being prepared for 1998.
In addition, works from the exhibit are featured on MDA note cards, calendars and holiday cards.
Some of the children's projects were created by groups of youngsters at MDA summer camps or MDA-sponsored art workshops.
About half the works in the exhibit are donated by adult artists, many of them talented amateurs and others award-winning professionals such as Ariane Berman and Milda Vizbar of New York and Sebastian Spreng of Miami. Many of the adult artists have works hanging in museums, galleries and private collections worldwide.
Ross added, "The MDA Art Collection is one of the most varied collections in the nation. The versatility attests to the imagination and talent of the artists we're honored to present."
The collection features unusual artistic media, from computer designs and collages featuring corncobs to paint applied with wheelchair wheels and feet. There are also many works in more traditional oil, watercolor, acrylics, pen and ink, crayon, pastels, bronze, ceramics and photography.
Subject matter ranges from self-portraits to landscapes, and from still lifes to outer space fantasies.
The collection has received extensive media coverage, including feature articles in American Artist, Advance for Physical Therapists, Reno Air's Excursions and Teaching Tolerance.
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A few of the artworks in the collection were donated posthumously by families of artists who have lost their lives to neuromuscular diseases. Since donating their works, several other artists represented in the collection have died from such fatal neuromuscular disorders as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, making the collection a fitting memorial to their abilities.
MDA is a voluntary health agency working to defeat 40 neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. The Association's programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors.
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