Biography
Oṣubi Craig is an arts administrator, artist and engineer possessing comprehensive experience as a higher education administrator, ensemble director, performing artist, presenter, arts center director, arts integration advocate, and education facilitator. Oṣubi brings a great deal of experience and energy to his role as the inaugural director of the recently launched Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship (CAME) in the College of the Arts at the University of Florida (UF).
Most recently at UF, Oṣubi served as Advisory Council member for Center for African Studies and has served as the college representative on several campus-wide working groups: the UF Equitable AI group, the Advanced AI Faculty Learning Community, and the AI and Society workgroup. Nationally, last year Oṣubi was elected as a member of the Executive Committee to the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities(A2ru).
His current work focuses on the intersections of arts, science, technology, entrepreneurship, and diasporic communities. This includes the creative economy space and directly supporting Artists’ and Creatives’ entrepreneurial efforts in their communities with a view towards global impact. As the director of CAME, he brings together faculty, artists, and community organizers from around the world to more broadly connect, collaborate, and create.
In particular, Oṣubi has supported the center’s former Maker in Residence Qudus Onikeku in developing his Atunda project. Atunda seeks to use AI technology to build a database of dance movement on blockchains to protect the IP rights of African Diasporan artists and ensure they are paid equitably when their art, works, and IP are commodified. Atunda is one example of the exponential possibilities of interconnected networks that CAME endeavors to cultivate and accelerate.
Oṣubi is co-founder and Co-PI of the SPARC352 Initiative: A Space for People, Art, Research, Community, Creativity, and Collaboration: SPARC352 seeks to activate spaces where community members can collaborate with artists, creatives, and researchers to develop programs, ideas, research and solutions using the arts as a resource for positive change at the intersections of creativity, health, entrepreneurship, and arts engagement.
In his 20+ years of experience as an arts administrator, Oṣubi has developed and implemented programming, cultivated relationships, established collaborative partnerships, crafted shared visions and strategic directions, and worked effectively with arts programs and organizations nestled under the umbrella of higher education institutions. Oṣubi’s diverse skill sets have served him in a variety of roles such as: Construction Project Manager and Research Coordinator for the College of Engineering, Sciences, Technology and Agriculture at FAMU; Director of Grants and Sponsored Research/HBCU Title III at Florida Memorial University; and Director of Arts and Cultural Affairs at Polk State College. Oṣubi additionally served at Virginia State University as Special Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives and Assistant Vice President for Government and External Relations.
As a third-generation percussionist growing up in Brooklyn, NY, Oṣubi was immersed in the emerging African Diasporic cultural arts movement. His passion for science and technology led him to earn a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering while minoring in Jazz Studies at Florida A&M University (FAMU). Oṣubi went on to earn an M.A. in Arts Administration from Florida State University. As an artist, he worked for major performing arts organizations, such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and National Dance Institute’s Arts in Education programs; as a lead drummer, for Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble (Philadelphia, PA); and as a teaching artist, for the Philly Pops (Philadelphia, PA), New Jersey Performing Arts Center (Newark, NJ), Lincoln Center Institute (New York, NY), and Urban Bush Women (Brooklyn, NY).