English 3420 Tours Mazza Museum

Amanda McGuire Rzicznek, Elizabeth Loo Zemanski, and their English 3420: Literature for Young Children class toured the Mazza Museum in Findlay, Ohio. The Mazza Museum boasts an extensive collection of internationally recognized children’s picture book art.  Many of the artists whose work is displayed in the galleries have won honors including the Caldecott Medal and Newbery Medal. The selected art is diverse in style as well as in media.

Amanda and Loo share their account: Upon our arrival at the Mazza Museum, the director, deputy director, and docent warmly welcomed us and guided us, in small breakout groups, through each engaging gallery. Our guides reiterated the importance of line, perspective, technique, media, and more, which helped strengthen the students' vocabulary and transfer the knowledge from critical readings and class discussions to the artwork hanging on the walls. At the end of the tour, our guides led the students through an art activity, based on the art of Ed Emberly and other artists, to help them consider the different medias available for creating illustrations that, in turn, inspired new ways of thinking about how to create their capstone project: to write and illustrate their own original picture books. Our visit definitely cultivated student appreciation for children’s literature and modeled for our students a field trip they could take their students on in the future. Our goal is to continue to foster a strong relationship with Mazza to promote community connection for future educators and encourage gratitude for all literature. 

Learn more about their visit to the Mazza Museum as Amanda, Loo, and their students share some of their takeaways:

Amanda's Takeaway: At Mazza, I greatly valued our students’ receptivity to studying the art. Several times I observed students talking to each other about the artwork--of their free will--and their enthusiasm with each other was contagious. Seeing the ideas we talk about in our classroom are alive beyond its walls—and hanging on Mazza’s walls!—really awakened their understanding, critical thinking skills, and excitement about reading. Children's Literature and literacy became very "real" to the students after our visit. And the aftereffects continue to ripple. During class discussion, a student will refer to a Mazza exhibit or in a written reflection they will make the connection between an idea and a featured illustration at Mazza. It is awesome to witness such a clear level of transference! I really believe that our students are going to apply what they learned in our class and during their visit to Mazza as they teach their own students to read and appreciate language and art.

Loo's Takeaway: It was an absolute pleasure to witness students’ engagement and enchantment with the extensive picture book art at Mazza.  Students strolled through decades of picture book art, transporting them to their favorite childhood stories and illustrations and illuminating the power of art to ignite deep, meaningful emotional responses in its viewers. Beyond their visceral reactions, in critical conversation with our guides, students responded to the ways in which color, texture, line, perspective in picture book art contributes to how audiences might experience a setting, how a character might express her most treasured dreams, or how readers might understand a seemingly insurmountable challenge.  Then, seeing students shift from viewer to creator, trying out the artistic techniques of Eric Carle and Ed Emberly, was a point of pride for our group.  Students took risks, imagined, and created in service of what they had learned and what they hope to display in their own original picture book projects.  These meaningful creations, reactions, and conversations about art in literature for children have been echoed in the work we’re doing in the classroom, and I hope (and believe) in the work they will do in their own classrooms one day. 

Lauren, Rachael, and Abigail each found the history and expansive collection from across time exciting. They share what a great resource the museum is for the community.

The Mazza Museum exceeded my expectations! Just like the first gallery, the entire Museum was like a step back into time; it brought back memories from my childhood, allowed me to admire work before my time, and gave me the opportunity to celebrate up and coming authors and illustrators! –Lauren Selmek

The trip to Mazza Museum was really opened my eyes to how large of a community the children's book creators is, and how lucky we are to have such an amazing resource for this community so close to home. I think that the most interesting part of the trip was the wall of illustrations over time. It was so cool to see how illustrations change and develop over time and what aspects stick around. –Rachael Brandel

My first trip to the Mazza Museum was a wonderful experience! I had the amazing opportunity to see original art pieces from published pieces of literature as well as learn about the history behind many children's books. The museum has so much knowledge and artwork to display to people of all ages. –Abigail Prohl

Christina and Alex share what they learned about visual literacy.

The Mazza Museum allowed me to experience the diversity of illustrations made for children's literature - there are so many different art styles to consider and all of them are unique and stunning! I also learned about the importance of visual literacy - children can "read" a book simply by looking at its illustrations, which will provide them with context clues when reading the text. –Christina Furia

The most memorable takeaway from the trip to Mazza was the tour of the galleries. On the tour I learned about how illustrations can sometimes help further explain difficult concepts to children, like using humorous illustrations to show compound words. –Alex Carlozzi

Abbey, Coreena, and Miranda share the greater appreciation and insight about children’s picture book art they gained.

I loved learning about the ins and outs of children's literature and illustration; I had no idea that paper engineering was an aspect of illustration. Being able to look at and learn about books that I enjoyed as a child was so interesting and helped me appreciate them even more. –Abbey Griffin

The Mazza trip brought me back to my childhood but with a creative view. Not only was I enjoying the pictures but I was able to look at them and truly enjoy all the hard work and detail within the pictures to make them so ascetically appealing. –Coreena Wise

Our visit to the Mazza Museum was an exciting and incredibly immersive experience in the world of picture book development. The informative guides gave us an insight on the process in which authors and illustrators go through and were ready and willing to help in any way possible. –Miranda Knuf

Please join Amanda and Loo for their students’ Picture Book Showcase on Thursday, April 26 from 5:30-7:00pm in the Jerome Library’s CRC. Their students are writing and illustrating their own picture books and then presenting them to campus and community members as their final projects.