Miami Art Week, the international art fair held annually, returns to Miami Beach, FL, from Dec. 1-7, 2025. This year continues to highlight the importance of Black art, thanks in large part to efforts spearheaded by architect Neil Hall.

At Art Basel in 2008, Hall noticed a lack of representation for Black art galleries and artists, according to the Miami Herald.

“It astounded me because the diaspora has so much creativity all over the world, and I didn’t see it,” Hall said, per the Miami Herald. “I decided that it was not acceptable.”

A few years later, Hall and several friends hosted a Black-centered art fair in an empty parking lot in the historically Black Overtown neighborhood, known as the Harlem of the South. That event would become Art Africa Miami, reports the Miami Herald.

While Hall no longer presents Art Africa in Overtown, his efforts to elevate the Black art scene during Miami Art Week have inspired others to carry on the mission. Across Miami, Black curators continue to showcase the work and influence of Black artists in predominantly Black neighborhoods like Overtown and Opa-locka — with many exhibitions remaining free throughout Art Week, the outlet notes.

For Hall, the movement he helped launch sends a powerful message — especially at a time when Black history, literature, and art are at the center of nationwide controversy.

“It is necessary for us because others are fearful of the incredible geniuses of the Black community,” Hall said, the Miami Herald reports. “We are a very, very creative people, and there’s nothing others can do to stop it.”

Neil Hall’s Vision Continues To Inspire During Miami Art Week

Hall’s pioneering efforts particularly inspired artist and curator Chris Norwood, founder of the Point Comfort Art Fair + Show at the Historic Ward Rooming House in Overtown. This year’s Art Week exhibition will spotlight contemporary African American artists whose work responds to the theme “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,” reports the Miami Herald.

“We have to teach our own history and promote our own history, and if the political winds go one way or the other, we may have to double down on that,” Norwood said, per The Miami Herald.

Willie Logan is the founder and CEO of Ten North Group, which sponsors the Art of Transformation (AOT) in Opa-locka. Now in its 13th year, AOT has become a premier destination featuring world-class art from across Africa and the African Diaspora, its website states.

According to The Miami Herald, this year’s AOT event features six exhibits, including “At the Edge of Entanglement: African American Contemporary Art,” which explores how deeply cultural, historical, and political forces intersect in Black art today.

Logan said hosting major art exhibitions in Black communities during Miami Art Week underscores these neighborhoods’ ability to draw the art world to them.

“It demonstrates that what Art Week looks like when the community tells its own story,” Logan told the Miami Herald. “It’s both rooted in history, it’s scaled with discipline, and it’s built for the long-term gain.”