We’ve long said that at the heart and soul of our community are the people who live and work here. They are the ones who make us unique and the ones who drive our community to thrive. If they are the heart and soul, then the supporting organizations are the heartbeat – the thing that keeps them alive.
Our community is rich in the arts – including visual, literary, and performance. And through our heritage and cultural organizations our community embraces the past and uses it to drive the future, using the lessons learned to grow.
Get caught up with our this quarter’s news from our Arts and Heritage Partners and sign up to receive this quarterly newsletter emailed to you!
Updates from University of Findlay
The New York Times bestselling author and poet Nikki Grimes will serve as the University of Findlay’s fall Freed Contemporary Christian Lecture Series Guest Speaker. Grimes will offer a free public presentation titled “Writing out of Call” at the University of Findlay on Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Winebrenner Building’s TLB Auditorium. Following her lecture, Grimes will be available to sign several of her books that will be for sale, including her latest, “Ordinary Hazards,” that won’t be publicly available for purchase until October. She will also offer a master class for University of Findlay students that will focus on writing a novel in verse. Learn more here!
Updates from Findlay Art League
The Findlay Art League will be hosting Chalk-A-Walk on Saturday, September 21. Participants will work individually or in teams to create drawings on the sidewalks along Main Street in downtown Findlay. Drawings will be judged and money prizes awarded at the Art League Gallery at 7:00 pm.
In November, the Art League will hold their annual Fall Juried Show. Art will be accepted from artists within a 150-mile radius of Findlay, and the opening will coincide with the November ArtWalk on November 1. Opening in conjunction with Small Business Saturday on November 30 will be Findlay Art League’s Art of Your Home Town Show. Work in this exhibit will represent in some way the home town of the artist, and will all be for sale. Interested in learning more? Contact the Findlay Art League!
Updates from Findlay Light Opera Company
The Findlay Light Opera Company, in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts, will present H.M.S. Pinafore: In Concert, November 2-3, 2019 in the Donnell Theatre at MCPA.
H.M.S Pinafore is a comic operetta in two acts with music composed by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W.S. Gilbert (Gilbert & Sullivan). The story takes place aboard the ship HMS Pinafore. The captain‘s daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. She abides by her father’s wishes at first, but Sir Joseph’s advocacy of the equality of humankind encourages Ralph and Josephine to overturn conventional social order. They declare their love for each other and eventually plan to elope. The captain discovers this plan, but, as in many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a surprise disclosure changes things dramatically near the end of the story.
H.M.S Pinafore: In Concert honors The Findlay Light Opera Company’s early years which focused on the cannon of Gilbert & Sullivan and other well-known operettas. This production opens the Findlay Light Opera Company 2019-2020 season, followed in June 2020 with Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man. For tickets, visit mcpa.org.
Updates from Findlay-Hancock County Public Library
Before We Were Yours has been chosen as the featured book for the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library’s 2020 CommunityREAD. Lisa Wingate, author of Before We Were Yours, will visit Hancock County on Thursday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m. during CommunityREAD month for a public presentation at the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
Through the lives of one fictional family, Before We Were Yours recounts the shameful true history of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis, which ran a black market baby business between the 1920’s and 1950. The Home provided over 5,000 orphans to well-to-do families—hiding the fact that many of the children had been stolen from poor families, desperate single mothers and maternity wards.
In Memphis, Tennessee in 1936, twelve-year-old Rill Foss must protect her four brothers and sisters when they are wretched from their family’s shanty riverboat and taken to the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. In the present day, Avery Stafford, the successful daughter of a United States Senator attempts to solve the mystery of her grandmother’s past.
Lisa Wingate is a former journalist, inspirational speaker, and New York Times Bestselling Author of thirty novels. Her work has won or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, The Carol Award, and the Christy Award. Her blockbuster hit, Before We Were Yours remained on the New York Times Bestseller List for over one year and has editions in 35 countries. Before We Were Yours has been a book club favorite worldwide and to date has sold over 1.5 million copies.
Copies of the Before We Were Yours are available for loan at the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library and will be provided to area school libraries. Tickets for the March 26th event will be available on January 6, 2020 by visiting the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts ticket office or via the website at https://mcpa.org. All tickets will cost $10 and will feature reserved seating. For further information about CommunityREAD here or call the library at 419-422-1712.
Updates from Hancock Historical Museum
The Hancock Historical Museum has several events coming up – learn more here:
Hancock County’s 5th Historic Barn Tour
In 2018, the Hancock Historical Museum’s Historic Barn Tour was presented with the Scenic Ohio award for the role it has played in generating awareness about agricultural heritage tourism in the state. On September 14th, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., the museum will host the 5th Historic Barn Tour in the southern portion of Hancock County, around the Mt. Blanchard community.
The self-guided tour will feature five historic barns, dating from the 1840s to the early 1900s. Each barn tells a unique story about the farm on which it sits, and the families who have owned it. In addition to learning more about these impressive structures, guests to the tour will enjoy a wide array of activities, including antique machinery and blacksmithing demonstrations, local food vendors, timber-framing and hewing demonstrations, and live music with the classic country band, East of Cheyenne and the Dulcimer Gatherin’.
Pre-sale tickets are available for $10 at the Museum, at sponsor locations in Hancock County, and online. Tickets will also be available at any of the barns on the day of the tour for $10 for museum members, $15 nonmembers. Children 16 and under are free. See a map of participating locations here!
5th Annual Oktoberfest Findlay!
In just five short years, Oktoberfest Findlay has become one of the largest single-day events in the area, with more than 5,000 people in attendance in 2018.
This year, Oktoberfest will return to Main Street in Downtown Findlay on Saturday, September 28th. The day’s festivities will kick off at 2:00 p.m. and run until 10:30 p.m. The festival includes live German music throughout the evening with Aaron Dussing & The Polka Revolution, and the internationally acclaimed polka artist, Fred Ziwich. Other activities include games and contests, authentic German food vendors, and more than 30 different varieties of German import and domestic beers.
Oktoberfest Findlay, presented by First Federal Bank, is a family-friendly event. The “Kinderplatz” children’s area will be located in Dorney Plaza, and will include activities sponsored by the Hancock Historical Museum, Findlay YMCA, Sylvan Learning, Blanchard River Watershed Cooperative, Hancock Park District, Awakening Minds Art, Literacy Coalition of Hancock County, University of Findlay, and Millstream Career Center. Children’s activities will run from 2 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Oktoberfest Findlay is $5 for those 21 years of age or older, and $3 for under age 21. Learn more here!
Spooktacular Family Fun in Findlay!
The Hancock Historical Museum’s annual Spooktacular celebration will take place on Saturday, October 26th from 5 – 8 p.m. This family-favorite event invites hundreds of visitors every year to partake in tours of the museum’s campus, hands-on activities, games and refreshments – all for just $1 admission!
This year, guests will enjoy tours of the “haunted” Hull House, built in 1881 and decorated for the occasion. Visitors can sample seasonal goodies prepared over the hearth in the Crawford Log House, and decorate pumpkins and cookies. Children will enjoy spooky storytelling, face-painting, and a variety of crafts and games. Refreshments are included in the admission price. Donations are appreciated.
Guests are encouraged to come in costume! The museum’s Spooktacular celebration is a candy-free event and is sponsored in part by area dentists. Learn more here!
