When Neil Hall perused the exhibits during Art Basel on Miami Beach back in 2008, he noticed a lack of Black art galleries and artists being featured.
“It astounded me because the diaspora has so much creativity all over the world, and I didn’t see it,” he said. “I decided that it was not acceptable.”
A few years later, Hall, a Miami-based architect and founder of gallery Art Africa, along with a few friends, hosted a Black-centered event in Overtown, Miami’s historically Black neighborhood known as the Harlem of the South. The group set up in an empty parking lot near where the restaurant Red Rooster currently sits and held their own art fair, which would be known as Art Africa Miami.
Since then, Hall’s work to cultivate a space for Black art during Miami Art week has inspired others to follow suit. Black curators across Miami have reshaped Art Week by turning predominantly Black neighborhoods like Overtown and Opa-locka into essential stops on the art-world map — a deliberate effort to make visitors engage with Black artists in the communities that shaped them.
In 2013, the first iteration of Soul Basel was created in Overtown. Opa-locka has been bringing art lovers to visit their annual Art of Transformation exhibit, which takes over several blocks of the city, for several years. Miami Gardens is hosting LOUD Week, a four-day event that encompasses art and entertainment and fashion. And the AfriKin Art Fair returns to North Miami, and includes weeklong events and exhibitions centered on the theme of belonging, identity and cultural continuity. There is also an effort to highlight these events by local tourism entity, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.
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