Findlay, Ohio, Sept. 23, 2003 — Six noted artists and authors of children’s picture books will serve as keynote speakers for the 2003 Mazza Weekend Institute at The University of Findlay Nov. 7-8.

The institute will include a Friday evening dinner, keynote address and autograph session as well as Saturday’s events, with five keynote addresses, lunch and autograph sessions.

The keynote speakers are Wendy Halperin, artist and author of dozens of children’s books including Love Is…, Sophie and Rose and Chicken Grow Teeth; Doug Keith, an artist known for illustrating many books by sports figures, including A Winning Edge by Bonnie Blair, Never Day Never by Doug Flutie and Things Change by Troy Aikman; Jack Prelutsky, internationally acclaimed author of more than 60 books of original verse and anthologies of children’s poetry, such as Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep, It’s Raining Pigs and Noodles and My Parents Think I’m Sleeping; Peter Spier, an artist/author who immigrated from the Netherlands in 1951 and a Caldecott winner for The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night and Noah’s Ark; Richard Jessie Watson, an Ezra Jack Keats Fellow and Golden Kite Award winner for Tom Thumb; and Dirk Zimmer, a native of West Germany who has illustrated such books as In a Dark, Dark Room and The Curse of the Squirrel.

Space is limited to 300 participants. The basic registration fee is $95, which is waived for those taking the institute for undergraduate or graduate credit. One or two hours of graduate credit is available for $349 per hour, while one or two hours of undergraduate credit is available for $419 per hour. Dinner on Friday evening is available for an additional cost of $20.

The Mazza Museum at The University of Findlay is the first and largest teaching gallery in the world specializing in the art from children’s picture books.

To register, call Ben Sapp at 419-434-4560.