The College of Arts and Humanities has invited more than 100 distinguished alumni to California State University, Fresno to help celebrate the Centennial by bringing their wisdom to discussion panels on Friday, Oct. 15.

And on the same day, there will be a reception as part of the Department of Art and Design’s Centennial Art Exhibition at the Conley Art Gallery in the Phebe Conley Art Building.

The panels and the exhibition are open to the community and are free.

The panel discussions are part of the college’s monthlong celebration of the university’s Centennial, call attention to Arts and Humanities alumni’s accomplishments and provide intellectual stimulus for the campus and greater community.

The alumni participating in panels have won Oscars, Emmys and Tonys, a Pulitzer Prize, numerous book and arts awards. They’ve become college presidents, corporate CEOs, technology innovators, philosophers and poet laureates and been recognized on Broadway, in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street and, literally, around the world.

Alumni discussions will be held throughout the day for each of the college’s departments: Art and Design, Communication, English, Linguistics, Mass Communication and Journalism, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, Music, Philosophy and Theatre Arts.

The day begins with a special panel at 9:30 a.m. in the Peters Business Building, Room 194, devoted to the early World War II internment of Japanese-Americans Panelists are:

  • Fresno County Superior Court Judge Dale Ikeda, former district governor and national legal counsel of the Japanese American Citizens League, who helped Fresno State locate alumni whose education was interrupted by internment so they could be awarded honorary degrees.
  • Lawson Fusao Inada, poet laureate of Oregon, who was interned at age 8.
  • Satoshi Kuwamoto, who received an honorary degree in May at Fresno State through the California State University Nisei College Diploma Project.
  • The Rev. Saburo Masada, a retired Presbyterian pastor.
  • Robert Ogata, an artist.

Regional Emmy-winning broadcast journalist Jan Yanehiro will moderate the discussion about internment, life after that experience, reparations and the university’s efforts to confer degrees on Nisei alumni.

A complete schedule of the panel discussions is available at http://www.fresnostate100.com/cah/detail-by-day.htm.

The Centennial Alumni Exhibition through Sunday, Oct. 17, offers visitors a glimpse of the breadth of Fresno State’s Department of Art and Design through the work of 45 alumni, whose pieces in this show are from different stages of their careers. Media represented are painting, photography, sculpture, digital art, animation, ceramics, video, paper collages and a floor installation.

The alumni include Dixie Salazar, Doug Hansen, Adam Longatti, Robert Ogata and Chris Sorenson. Of special interest is the work of three artists – Susan Boud, Dori Atlantis and Vanalyne Green – inspired by the Feminist Art Movement, which traces its roots to the 1970s at Fresno State under Judy Chicago.

For more information, visit http://www.fresnostate100.com/cah/events.htm.