Ade-Odutola: Honouring Diamond Jubilee of a culture ambassador

The Nigerian arts community is celebrating one of its own and poet,Dr. Kole Ade-Odutola marking his Diamond Jubilee.

Dr. Ade-Odutola who is also photographer, literary critic and lecturer at the University of Florida, Gainsville, clocks 60 this month and the art and culture community didn’t allow either covid19 or the fact that the celebrant is in the United States to deny them the opportunity of honouring a worthy culture ambassador.

The Kole Ade-Odutola @ 60 (KA-O60 Committee) on Sunday August 2, 2020 hosted a virtual Arthouse Party in honour of this academic and poet.

The online event, themed ‘Arts & Culture Administration In Pandemic Era’, was held in celebration of the man who was responsible for the formation of Coalition of Nigerian Artistes (CONA) in the early 1990s.

Supported by the Committee of Relevant Arts (CORA), The Culture Newspaper (TCN) and Arts and Culture Writers Association of Nigeria (ACWAN), the Zoom chat also examined consolidating unity and cooperation in the culture community as a sub-theme.

Trained as a botanist, Ade-Odutola is an academic, poet, journalist, photographer, literary critic, social activist and community mobiliser. He is currently a lecturer of Yoruba in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures at the University of Florida, USA.

He was instrumental to the formation of CONA, a collective of artists of diverse disciplines and culture workers, a short-lived initiative meant to serve as the umbrella body of all associations operating in the culture and creative industry space.