ARTWORK
BY VIRGINIA ARTIST
ACCEPTED INTO MDA ART COLLECTION
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“Bavarian Reflection” |
TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 1, 2007 –
A photograph by Mario Damiani of Arlington,
Va., has been accepted by the Muscular
Dystrophy Association’s Art Collection.
Now in its 15th year, the Collection
features artwork by people from across
the country with neuromuscular diseases.
Damiani’s “Bavarian Reflection”
is a photograph of the Heilig-Geist-Spital,
a restaurant towering over the Pegnitz
River in Nuremberg, Germany; the building
was a hospital in the Middle Ages. The
photograph was taken with a Nikon APS
camera during a trip in the summer of
2000.
Damiani, 29, is a policy adviser in
the Office of Disability Employment
Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor
and is a member of MDA’s National
Task Force on Public Awareness.
The Task Force, which is made up of
accomplished adults who have neuromuscular
diseases, promotes MDA’s goals
and programs, and advises the Association
on matters of importance to people with
disabilities such as medical care, insurance,
independent living, personal assistance
services and pertinent legislation.
Damiani earned his law degree from
the Catholic University of America in
Washington D.C., and has been an amateur
photographer for 15 years.
Damiani is affected by Becker muscular
dystrophy, a genetic disorder that most
typically affects adolescent and adult
males, causing weakness and wasting
in muscles of the hips and pelvis, upper
arms and upper legs. He uses a standing
power wheelchair for mobility and independence.
“We’re deeply honored
to welcome Mario Damiani’s work
into the permanent MDA Art Collection,”
MDA President & CEO Gerald Weinberg
said. “His 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 Damiani is on display
at MDA’s national headquarters
in Tucson, Ariz., and can be seen at
www.mda.org/commprog/art/displayall.aspx. Damiani’s piece
also 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 comprises
more than 335 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.
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. MDA maintains
clinics for area adults and children
affected by neuromuscular diseases at
Georgetown University Hospital and Children’s
National Medical Center in Washington.
The Association’s programs are
funded almost entirely by individual
private contributors.
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