ARTWORK BY LAUDERHILL ARTIST
ACCEPTED BY MDA ART COLLECTION

"Cooking Up a Storm"

TUCSON, Ariz., July 7, 2004 — Two watercolor paintings by Monty Topche of Lauderhill, Fla., have been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Art Collection. Now in its 13th year, the Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

“Cooking Up a Storm” paints a delightful picture of two children, dressed in oversized clothes, busy experimenting in the kitchen. “The Scribe” depicts a scholar carefully copying the text of the Torah into a new scroll.

Topche’s watercolors have won blue ribbons four years in a row at the Senior Citizens Art Show and Auction in Broward County. His artwork has been exhibited at numerous art shows throughout Florida and has won a variety of awards.

Retired since 1990 from selling textiles to women’s sportswear manufacturers, Topche, 79, received a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 1999. A disease of the parts of the nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement, ALS causes muscles to become weak and then nonfunctional.

Topche’s arms still function well enough for him to paint without assistance, and he specializes in paintings of people, especially children.

“We’re deeply honored to welcome Monty Topche’s work into the permanent MDA Art Collection,” MDA President & CEO Robert Ross said. “His contributions to our Collection will undoubtedly captivate all who see them as they travel to galleries and museums as part of special exhibits of the Collection.”

The new additions by Topche will be displayed at MDA’s national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.. They’ll also 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 comprises more than 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.

"The Scribe"

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. In addition to Kessenich Family MDA/ALS Center at the University of Miami, MDA maintains clinics for Miami area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at the University of Miami School of Medicine and the Broward General Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale.

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