(From the University of Findlay’s Mazza Museum)
A celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States will take place at the January 11 “Funday Sunday” program of the University of Findlay’s Mazza Museum, and area residents are invited to the party.
Free and open to the public, the program offers a red-white-and-blue bundle of excitement with art, games, and hands-on educational stations, including the Armstrong Air and Space Museum, plus face painting, birthday cake, and a variety of nostalgic birthday activities to commemorate the U.S. Semiquincentennial.
A new exhibit, “Drawn Together: An Illustrated Celebration of America 250,” also will debut at Funday Sunday.
“This birthday celebration marking America’s 250th anniversary offers a meaningful and engaging experience for families,” said Amanda Davidson-Johnston, assistant director at the Mazza Museum. “Through books, art, and the opening of our America 250 gallery, we are inviting the community to come together to celebrate and look ahead.”
The author/illustrator duo Peter Barnes and Cheryl Shaw Barnes will be special guests at the event. The owners of VSP Books created the best-selling Woodrow, the White House Mouse as well as House Mouse, Senate Mouse and Marshall, the Courthouse Mouse, among others. Their many children’s books – that have sold nearly 1 million copies – teach young readers about government and civics.
Registration for Funday Sunday is required and can be completed on the Mazza Museum’s website.
UF’s Mazza Museum is one of the collaborators with America 250-Ohio, the commission formed by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to lead the state in participating in the U.S. 250th anniversary that culminates on July 4, 2026. America 250-Ohio is showcasing Ohioans from all 88 counties as part of the state’s unique role in the nation’s story.
Thanks to a sponsorship by America 250-Ohio, each child who attends Funday Sunday in January will receive a free book, Davidson-Johnston said.
“Drawn Together: An Illustrated Celebration of America 250”
As America marks this special anniversary, a new Mazza exhibition celebrates the collective stories that have shaped the nation’s two and a half centuries, told through the enduring art of original picture book illustrations.
“From the indigenous people who first populated this land to immigrants like H. A. Rey and his wife Margaret, who escaped Nazi-occupied Paris and found new life in New York with a manuscript that would become Curious George, these images trace a sweeping and deeply human history,” said Dan Chudzinski, director of the Mazza Museum.
“They carry us through moments of discovery, struggle, creativity, and hope, from ancient earthworks such as the Serpent Mound to inventors and astronauts who carried America’s stories quite literally beyond our world, to the moon and back again.”
Highlights include the original cover art for American Girl: Felicity by Dan Andreasen, a hand-painted animation cel of Mickey Mouse by Hancock County native Madeline Porter, and illustrations depicting the nation’s founders, suffragists, abolitionists, and Civil Rights leaders, plus iconic elements of popular culture from baseball and football to Superman.
“This exhibition invites visitors of all ages to see America’s story not as a single narrative, but as many voices, many images, and many stories: shared, remembered, and still unfolding,” Chudzinski noted.
The Funday Sundays 2025-26 series takes place each month through April, from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. It is sponsored by Hancock Federal Credit Union.
Themes for additional Funday Sundays this year are:
February 8: Jungle Expedition with the Toledo Zoo
March 15: Comics Unleashed
April 19: Weather Wonders
For more information on upcoming events, visit the Mazza Museum’s Events page online at www.mazzamuseum.org/events/. For specific questions regarding Funday Sunday, please contact Amanda Davidson-Johnston at 419-434-4777 or amanda.davidson-johnston@findlay.edu.
