At the recent Market Day at the Food Truck lunch in the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts, some Bigelow Hill Intermediate 5th grade students finished the year with an entrepreneurial project with giving back in mind. The students had previously met with various non-profit organizations in Findlay, and then chose non-profits to raise money for by selling student-created, made, and marketed items. This certain group of brilliant little philanthropists chose the Mazza Museum! The students made excellent origami bookmarks for the Market Day event, and also came to the museum and sold their products in the Great Hall before...

The University of Findlay invites the public to celebrate the planned Joseph and Judith Conda STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics/medicine) Education Center addition to the Mazza Museum, thanks in part to generous lead financial donors Joseph and Judith Conda. A ceremony with the Condas, which will include the unveiling of architectural renderings, will be held Wednesday, April 3 at 3 p.m. at the Museum. Joseph “Joe” and Judith Conda’s legacy of investment in quality and sustainable causes has greatly impacted Northwest Ohio residents, including Mazza Museum visitors of all ages who for years have enjoyed original picture book illustrations...

Author/Illustrator, T.L. McBeth, better known as Trenton McBeath, did his hometown proud on Sunday, February 3, as he gave his first Mazza presentation since being published. Trenton spoke about his latest title, Robot in Love, sharing the process from conception of the idea (which started in about 5th grade) to pitching the idea to his publisher, and then finally being a published book. The audience enjoyed learning about Trenton’s journey since he left Findlay to pursue his dream of being an author and illustrator. Trenton has several more books under contract for publishing and looks forward to presenting again at...

Can you believe 1,092 people converged upon the campus of University of Findlay to celebrate Legos Funday Sunday-style? What a turnout! There were over 129 volunteers and 26 different stations. The Greater Toledo Lego Club, Bigelow Hill Intermediate School Lego Club, Snapology, and Girl Scouts of Western Ohio were just a few of the clubs that participated in the brick-filled fun. Of course there were plenty of art activities and our ever-popular face painting station. Many of our own UF students volunteered at various stations such as American Sign Language, Computer Science, Physics, the Newhard Planetarium, and Japanese Culture. “Goofy...

The biggest awards in picture books were shown on the big screen on Jan. 28 in the Mazza Museum. Volunteers were invited to join the staff to watch the Youth Media Awards given by the American Library Association. Coffee, and some Caldecott quizzing made the morning a fun time for all. Of course, we kept track of our Mazza artist friends who were recognized for their books. Sophie Blackall, Brian Lies, Paul O. Zelinski, Scott Magoon, Dan Santat, Yuyi Morales, Grace Lin, Ian Schoenherr, Jarrett Krosoczka and Sergio Ruzzier have all been to Mazza or been visited by the Mazza Study Tour and...

The Mazza Fall Weekend Conference had something for everyone! The weekend kicked off with the awarding of the Mazza Medallion of Excellence to David A. Carter. The award is given bi-annually to an illustrator who shows diversity of style in their work. David was a perfect choice for this award due to his attention to age and development with his work. We enjoyed hearing his talk about his career and muses as well. Saturday was full of excitement beginning with author Phil Bildner whose energy was infectious! His presentation told about his work as a teacher in the Bronx and...

The first Funday Sunday of the 2018-2019 season, sponsored by Fifth third Bank and built around the Homecoming 2018 theme “Where Your Story Began,” was met with lots of excitement!   With 18 stations to choose from, more than 300 children and their parents were able to learn about Education, Science and Occupational Therapy at UF, as well as visit international stations, and those based on the Newhard Planetarium on campus. Marathon Center for Performing Arts, Marathon Petroleum Co., YWCA American sign Language, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) and STEM stations were all represented. A presentation was given...

When an artist is asked how an idea came about, the answer usually reveals depth and planning. These ideas often come about over years of weighty ponderance and intense suffering for the cause. So, when Greg Manchess, the author and illustrator of the young adult novel “Above the Timberline,” was at the University of Findlay recently and was asked the question regarding how he came up with the idea for the novel, his answer was a little unorthodox. “I literally had to start making stuff up,” Manchess said. “People were asking, ‘What’s the story?’ and I really didn’t know.” He...