DRAWING BY BENNINGTON ARTIST ACCEPTED BY MDA ART COLLECTION

The Texas Inn by Janice J. Campbell

TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 14, 2001 - A pencil drawing by Janice J. Campbell of Bennington, Vt., has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Art Collection. The Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

Campbell's "The Texas Inn" depicts a charming landmark restaurant which was converted from a nostalgic service station located in Lynchburg, Va., where she lived for nine years. The simple sketch on a white background exemplifies just one element of Campbell's varied artistic talents.

Campbell, 48, has been an artist for 25 years. She earned a bachelor's degree in art from Longwood College in Farmville, Va., in 1978. As a portrait artist, she employs a wide range of media and creates porcelain sculptures in her home studio. Her artwork has been exhibited in several shows in Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts and North Carolina.

Campbell has also written a book titled "Going for the Big Cheese," which reflects her experience of living with myasthenia gravis, creatively told through the eyes of a paraplegic mouse. Myasthenia gravis is a disease of the neuromuscular junction that causes weakness and fatigability of muscles of the eyes, face, neck, throat, limbs and/or trunk.

"We're pleased to have this delightful drawing by Janice Campbell in the permanent MDA Art Collection," said MDA Senior Vice President and Executive Director Robert Ross. "Her 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 Campbell 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.

The permanent Collection currently comprises more than 250 works by artists ages 2 to 82 and represents 44 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.

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 Fletcher Allen Health Care Center in Burlington, Vt.

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