Headshot of RAS DIA (photo credit: Marion Aguas). A black and white headshot to midchest photo of a dark-skinned black man in his 30s weari a dark black mid-brow and medium beard, wearing a dark turtleneck and leather jacket with metal details

Ras Dia is a Brooklyn-born arts leader and producer whose work has been described as “stirring” (The Washington Post), “bracing, compelling, and heartbreaking” (Musical America), and “grippingly produced” (The Boston Globe). He currently serves as Deputy Director, Creative Projects at National Sawdust, an artist-led venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, co-founded by visionary impresaria and composer Paola Prestini. Ras additionally serves as Producing Director of VisionIntoArt (VIA), where he leads a slate of innovative opera projects, global collaborations, and impact-centered commissions.

As Creative Producer, his recent work with VIA includes Primero Sueño, a site-specific, processional opera co-created by Paola Prestini, Magos Herrera, and Louisa Proske, featured in the New York Times, and co-commissioned by VIA and The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Sensorium Ex, a groundbreaking opera and social impact project (featured in PBS Newshour, NPR Morning Edition, and Forbes) which explores community-driven impact, disability inclusion, and artificial intelligence; Archive of Desire, created with Robin Coste Lewis, Julie Mehretu, Vijay Iyer, and Jeffrey Zeigler, presented at National Sawdust, Palazzo Grassi - Punta della Dogana (Venice, Italy), and The Broad Museum (Los Angeles); We Were Fridays, a cultural heritage and music project rooted in diaspora and collective imagination, created by cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, with Tamar-kali, Etienne Charles, Hannah Ishizaki, Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Grey, and sister sylvester, in partnership with Penn Center (St. Helena Island, SC); and a forthcoming 2027 opera project with Spoleto Festival USA, co-created by Paola Prestini, Robin Coste Lewis, and Ava DuVernay.

Under Ras’ leadership, VIA’s pioneering work is supported by institutions including the NEA, NYSCA, and the Ford, Mellon, Doris Duke, Onassis, Toulmin, Achelis & Bodman, and Alphadyne Foundations. Collaborators and presenting partners include the NYU Ability Project, ARUP, The Shed, Romaeuropa Festival, Artscape Cape Town, the Pinault Collection, Creative Capital, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Marian Goodman Gallery, Common Senses Festival, MASS MoCA, Cause Lab, and more.

Ras previously served as the Creative Producer at Little Island, a public park and arts organization with more than 1.5 million annual visitors which opened in 2021, founded by the Diller - von Furstenberg Family Foundation, where he helped lead and curate the park’s first three seasons, with featured artists including Phylicia Rashad, Daniel J. Watts, Ayodele Casel, Shaina Taub, Amber Iman, Michael Thurber, Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Tessa Lark, Michael Thurber, PigPen Theatre Co., André de Shields, Alicia Keys’ She Is the Music, Joshua Henry, Lillias White, Mykal Kilgore, J Hoard, James Austin Johnson, Andrew Dismukes, American Ballet Theatre, Tonya Pinkins, Behzad Jamshidi, Grace McLean, and Morgan Jay.

Other roles include Assistant Producer of the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD, a Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning series seen annually in 1,700 venues across 54 countries, and Managing Director of the New York City Master Chorale. His experience spans production, development, marketing, operations, and community programs at institutions such as the National Children’s Chorus, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Carnegie Hall, and The New School, where he supported initiatives for immigrant, refugee, and survivor communities across NYC.

His future-visioning work includes initiatives such as the National Sawdust - VisionIntoArt Impact Lab Fellowship, and he has served as a guest speaker, panelist, and career mentor for the Manhattan School of Music, Amherst College, the YoungArts Foundation, and Opera America’s IDEA Opera Fellowship.

In 2021, Ras co-founded ffflypaper, a creative imprint through which he co-directed the Frederick R. Koch Foundation’s Townhouse Series, and produced FREEFEST 2021, a Juneteenth Festival presented with Domino Park, and partners including WQXR, National Sawdust, the African-American Roller Skate Museum, Reel Works, We Build The Block, The Empire Marching Elite, and Crew Count. As the Creative Producer of Heartbeat Opera’s BREATHING FREE (produced across New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and nominated for a Drama League Award), he curated featured presentations with guests and partners including the American Civil Liberties Union, the New York Police Department (NYPD), Color of Change, Columbia University, Georgetown University, Amherst College, Smith College, Echoes of Incarceration, PEN America’s Prison Writing Program, LGBTQ Freedom Fund, Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. Other producing projects include MTT25: An American Icon (San Francisco Symphony), In Song (San Francisco Opera), and NationalSawdust+, a performance and conversation series which brings together artists and thinkers including Jad Abumrad, Maria Popova, Marina Abramovic, Yo-Yo Ma, and Carrie Mae Weems.

Ras is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Purchase College (SUNY), and the Boys Choir of Harlem.