The 400th anniversary of the publication of “Don Quixote” by author Miguel de Cervantes will be observed in a two-day interdisciplinary celebration on April 11 and 12 sponsored by the College of Arts and Humanities at California State University, Fresno.

The publication anniversary of “Don Quixote,” Cervantes’ literary masterpiece, will be celebrated Monday and Tuesday, April 11 and12, with several presentations and displays. All events are free.

The April 11 events are:

• “Cervantes and the Visual Art of Spain,” an exhibit of artwork on loan from the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Fresno Art Museum. The pieces, selected by Art and Design professor Dr. Gina Strumwasser, will be displayed in the President’s Gallery in the Thomas Administration Building. The opening reception will be at 4 p.m.

• Dr. Richard Mann from San Francisco State University will deliver a lecture “El Greco: Synthesizing Divergent Cultural Traditions” at 3 p.m. in the Alice Peters Auditorium in the University Business Center.

• “Music for the Golden Age of Spain” will be performed at 8 p.m. in the Music building Concert Hall. Performers are the Fresno State Chamber Singers directed by Dr. Anna Hamre; the Clendenin Brass Quintet directed by Dr. Michael Caldwell, and Dr. Cory Whitehead, guitar, accompanying Prof. Helene Joseph-Weil, mezzo-soprano. Dr. Ted Bergman, professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, will deliver the opening remarks “Don Quixote: Beyond Time, Space, and Imagination.”

The April 12 events are:

• The Cervantes Symposium from 9 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the University Business Center. Presenters include professors and graduate students of Hispanic Literature from throughout the country who specialize in Spain’s Golden Age, the time period in which Cervantes wrote “Don Quixote.”

• At 8 p.m., keynote speaker Dr. Alban K. Forcione, the Alma Schapiro Humanities professor at Columbia University, will speak in the Music Building Concert Hall. The title of his talk is “An Introduction to Cervantes’ Don Quixote: Individuality and the Novilistic Vision of the Human Being” Following his talk, the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance will present “Cervantes Through the Looking Glass” directed by Edward EmanuEl featuring guest artist, specialist in Commedia dell’arte, Albert Ash.

The Henry Madden Library will feature an exhibit of Cervantes’ works and other books

relating to Don Quixote in the first-floor lobby collection display from April 4 to15.

For more information, contact Dr. Jose Diaz at 278-3056.

(Copy by University Communications student-intern Jodie Mocciaro.)

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