Ademola Olugebefola is an educator, painter, printmaker, art director and designer of promotional graphics as well as interior and stage design. Born in Charlotte Amalie in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he has spent most of his adult life living and working in Harlem. His work has been published as covers and illustrations for hundreds of books, magazines, journals, newspapers, invitations and commemorative posters over a career spanning 35 years. Dr. Olugebefola is highly regarded for his important contributions to the Harlem community as one of the founders of Harlem Week, the New York chapter of the National Conference of Artists, the Harlem Visitors and Conventions Association, the Weusi Academy, the Grinnell Gallery, the Benin Gallery, Harlem Artists and scholars Consortium (HASIC), House of Umoja among others. He has an extensive and distinguished record of important exhibitions in the United States, Africa, Japan, and the Caribbean and is represented in private and public collections throughout the United States and abroad. Featured in the Museum of African American History of Detroit, Michigan's When The Spirit Moves: African American Art Inspired by Dance, this major exhibition traveled to The Spelman Museum of Art in Atlanta in June 2000 and The Smithsonian Museum on the Mall in Washington DC in fall 2000. His work in theatre, dance and graphic design has been highlighted in the retrospective Onstage: A Century of African American Stage Design and a 1998 solo exhibition Ademola: Responding to Dance, both at the prestigious New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. The world renowned Schomburg Center mounted a companion retrospective of his published graphics that same year. Since 1990, the artist has produced a significant body of drawings, monoprints, watercolors and mixed media work and has been prominently featured in several books and landmark traveling exhibitions including Black Art Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African American Art, organized by the Dallas Museum of Art (1989-91); Caribbean Visions: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, organized by Art Services International, Alexandria, VA (1995-98); his mixed media painting of the legendary avant garde musician and bandleader SunRa is featured in Seeing Jazz a collaboration between the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution (1997-1999). These exhibitions and their educational programs attracted over 1.8 million viewers to scores of major museums, cultural centers and schools throughout the United States. Dr. Olugebefola as scholar/educator has lectured and/or taught at universities, museums and cultural institutions throughout the United States and the Caribbean on art history aesthetics and economics of the cultural industry. He is a principle partner in Gumbs and Thomas Publishers, Inc., a company that is a catalyst in the tremendous growth of Kwanzaa and helped spawn an industry through it's publications Kwanzaa Everything You Always Wanted To Know, But Didn't Know Where To Ask (1986), Let's Celebrate Kwanzaa (1987 children's book) and An Everyday Resource and Instructional Guide (1993 curriculum). In addition 1st & 2nd Edition Harlem Today: A Cultural and Visitors Guide (1986, 1994) and The Harlem Cultural and Political Movement in 1960-1970: From Malcolm X to Black is Beautiful (1993) has enhanced HarlemÕs image and history to a worldwide audience. As co-director of the Grinnell Gallery, his expertise helps shape policy and programming as co-chairman of the Cultural and Art Committee of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. As a community activist, he also serves on the governing and advisory boards of International Communications Association Inc., Harlem International Biennial 2002, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Memorial Committee Inc, NYNCA Gateway to Africa National Conference 2001, WEUSI Artists Collective and the Harlem Health Promotion Center (Columbia University). Who's Who in African American Art; Who's Who in The East; Who's Who Among Black Americans; 1000 Notable Americans; International Dictionary of Biography; Outstanding people of the 20th Century, 2000; Intellectuals of the 20th Century, publications of the International Biographical Center, Cambridge, England; and a host of other books and data banks including ARTNET.com and ART-ALIVE.com all note Ademola's work and career achievements. For scholars and researchers, the Ademola Olugebefola Papers are part of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture collection. Additional information on Ademola's work and activities can also be found in the archives/library of the Studio Museum in Harlem; The Museum of Modern Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Whitney Museum of American Art; Moorland-Spingam Research Center, Howard University; Africana Research Center, Cornell University; University of the Virgin Islands; The Kansas City Jazz Museum; The Cleveland Museum of Art; The National Portrait Gallery, The National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution among others. Return to Ademola's article Ademola's Gallery