Watercolor by Brooklyn Artist Accepted by MDA Art Collection

Muscular Dystrophy Association
Thursday, 3 July 2003

A brightly colored watercolor painted by Ruth Rubinstein of Brooklyn, N.Y., has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Art Collection.

Now in its 12th year, the Collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

"Chasing Windmills" is a fanciful piece, depicting a small boat drifting along a river past two windmills. A brilliant sky is reflected off the surface of the river.

Rubinstein has enjoyed painting since she was a child, winning several awards for her work while in school, but she had to abandon her art studies in order to support her family.

Rubinstein now enjoys painting full time at the Surf-Solomon Senior Center in Coney Island, N.Y. Since 1995, Rubinstein has completed more than 200 paintings, using a variety of media.

In 1999, Rubinstein received a diagnosis of myasthenia gravis, a disease of the neuromuscular junction that causes weakness and fatigability of muscles of the eyes, face, neck, throat, limbs and/or trunk. Surgery to remove Rubinstein's thymus gland — a common treatment for myasthenia gravis — has resulted in paralysis of her vocal cords, making speech difficult.

"We're deeply honored to welcome Ruth Rubinstein's work into the permanent MDA Art Collection," MDA President & CEO 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 Rubinstein will be displayed 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 comprises some 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.

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 New York area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, as well as Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Hospital for Joint Diseases, Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center and the Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in New York City.

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

For more information, or to contact Muscular Dystrophy Association, see their website at: www.mdausa.org