Art Education Associate Professor Christopher Adejumo passed away in December 2023 at the age of 64. Adejumo joined the UT Department of Art and Art History in 1997, and he spent more than 25 years teaching future art educators and developing visual art programs for youth.
“Over these past few days, colleagues have affirmed sentiments I’ve heard over many years: Christopher Adejumo was a man of gentleness and generosity, possessed of a warm smile and hearty laugh, and an unfailingly kind, supportive teacher to major and non-major undergraduate and graduate students alike,” said Susan Rather, chair of the Department of Art and Art History.
Adejumo founded and led the Greater Tomorrow Youth Art Program with the department and the Austin Visual Arts Association. Established in 1999, program provided gifted and economically disadvantaged Austin youths with beneficial experiences in art. The program provided free art lessons from Adejumo and served more than 25 students every year. The Austin Chronicle hailed the as “the best free summer art program for kids in Austin.”
Adejumo’s research focused on community-based art education and multicultural art education, and he was a practicing artist whose relief prints, low-relief sculptures and paintings were shown in more than 30 local, state, national, and international exhibitions.
The philosophy that guided Adejumo’s public school and community-based art outreach initiatives was predicated on the conviction that art education faculty in institutions of higher learning should participate actively in the development of art and art education in the public schools and alternative settings within community.
He worked with several innovative art education programs, such as “Children of the Future” community art program in Columbus, Ohio. He received the National Art Education Association’s Eugene Grigsby Jr. national award for “outstanding contributions to community-based art education.”
Adejumo earned a Ph.D. in Art Education from the Ohio State University, an M.F.A. in printmaking from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Benin, Nigeria.