PAINTING BY COLUMBUS ARTIST ACCEPTED BY MDA ART COLLECTION

TUCSON, Ariz., August 24, 2001 - A painting by Blanche Cuba of Columbus, Neb., has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Art Collection. The Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

Cuba's "Frightening Lightning" is an oil painting depicting four panicked horses racing desperately around a tree that's just been hit by lightning.

"Frightening Lightning" by Blanche Cuba.

Cuba, 62, is affected by spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), which primarily affects the motor neurons that control the muscles of the body.

Cuba reports that her fascination with painting and drawing began when she was 2 years old, when she got her first pencil. Today, the retired office worker enjoys reading, music and needlework.

"We're honored to have such a powerful and breathtaking painting by Blanche Cuba in the permanent MDA Art Collection," MDA President Robert Ross said. "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 Cuba will be exhibited at MDA's national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz., and will 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 260 works by artists ages 2 to 82 and represents 48 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.

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 University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

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