Carson City man's art in national collection

A third photograph by Michael Lee Rabe, of Carson City, has been accepted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Art Collection. Now in its 14th year, the collection features artwork by people from across the country with neuromuscular diseases.

Rabe's "Winter's Frost" captures a nature scene featuring a river surrounded by frost-covered trees and brush.

The photograph is Rabe's third donation to the art collection. His previous donations are "Day's End" and "Winter in the Valley." Rabe is active with MDA's local office in Reno and has donated a photograph that will be used at an October fundraiser for the Association.

Rabe, 47, is employed by the Nevada Secretary of State's office and has been interested in art for more than 25 years.

Rabe is affected by Friedreich's ataxia, a disease of the peripheral nerves that causes muscle weakness, loss of balance and coordination, and cardiac abnormalities. FA is hereditary, and the first symptoms generally appear between childhood and adolescence.

The new addition by Rabe to the art collection is on display at MDA's national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz., and can be seen at http://www.mdausa.org/media/artcollection.html. Rabe'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 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 volunteer health agency working to defeat neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and professional and public health education. MDA maintains a clinic for area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at the Washoe Medical Center-South Meadows, in Reno.

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