2009 NPC Southern States Fitness, Figure, Bikini & Bodybuilding Championships
Presents “The Muscular Body as Living Art”

April 28, 2009, FT. LAUDERDALE, Florida – On Thursday, July 9, at 6:00 p.m., the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale, Nova Southeastern University and the 2009 NPC Southern States Fitness, Figure, Bikini & Bodybuilding Championships will unite to present “The Muscular Body as Living Art.”  The special event will be held at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale’s Horvitz Auditorium and outdoor Sculpture Terrace in the heart of downtown Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. This summer’s event is inspired by the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 1976 live exhibition, “The Body as Art,” which featured Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, and Ed Corney.

Ellie Rodriguez, the entertainment reporter for Deco Drive, will host “The Muscular Body as Living Art” – a fun, live exhibition featuring NPC Bodybuilding Champions and noted art historians from Nova Southeastern University. The art historians will discuss male and female muscular body images as depicted by artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Auguste Rodin. During the discussion, NPC Bodybuilding Champions will bring iconic sculptures such as The Thinker, Diana (goddess of the hunt), Hercules (of the Theatre of Pompey), and The David to life posed on pedestals. The audience is invited to participate in what promises to be a lively discussion on male and female muscular body images in society.

“Artists for centuries have studied the human body, its contours, beauty, and power,’’ said Irvin Lippman, Executive Director of the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale.  “Now, front and center for the first time, and guaranteed to be a blockbuster, we offer you what promises to be an exceptional exhibition of muscular energy.”

The event will be followed by an outdoor cocktail party featuring live bodybuilders posing, hors d’oeuvres, live musical performances and an extravagant wall-to-wall screening of the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary “Pumping Iron.” There will also be a docent led tour of the exhibition, “With You I Want to Live: Contemporary Paintings, Sculpture, and Photographs from Two Private Fort Lauderdale Collections.”

"This event will be an exciting pre-event to our 2009 NPC Southern States Championships,”
commented Peter W. Potter, NPC National Vice-President & Promoter. “From the classical times of the Greeks & Romans to the present, a muscular physique has been the subject of artists and sculptors world-wide. The participating bodybuilders will exhibit the finest physiques of the present, as they will be in contest shape ready for the July 10-11 2009 NPC Southern States Championships contest."

“The Muscular Body as Living Art” will be an excellent preview to NPC Southern States Fitness, Figure, Bikini & Bodybuilding Championships on July 10th and July 11th just down the street at the War Memorial Auditorium in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The NPC Southern States Fitness, Figure, Bikini & Bodybuilding Championships is the largest, regional national qualifier east of the Mississippi and includes teenage, adult and senior competitors (both men and women) from ten different states plus Puerto Rico. The NPC Southern States Fitness, Figure, Bikini & Bodybuilding Championships is open to any athlete registered by the NPC (National Physique Committee) which is a part of the International Federation of Body Builders, an international amateur sports organization.  For more information about the 2009 NPC Southern States Competition please visit www.npcsouthernstates.com.

For tickets to “The Muscular Body as Living Art” and additional information contact Gail Vilone at (954) 262- 0249 or e-mail her at gvilone@moafl.org. Tickets are $25 at the door; $20 in advance (Will Call); and $15 for members of the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale and Nova Southeastern University students and faculty with a valid university I.D.  The Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale is located at One East Las Olas Boulevard at Andrews Avenue in Downtown Fort Lauderdale.

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