Miami, Fla. – The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) Art of Black Miami program is committed to promoting the creative influences of the African Diaspora, Caribbean influences, Latin Americans, and global artists who contribute to the fabric of Miami’s historic and diverse artistic community.

This year Art of Black Miami celebrates the exhibitions and curated art programming opportunities produced by art organizations, galleries, and spaces for attendees to experience in neighborhoods including Historic Overtown, Little Haiti, Little Havana, North Miami, Coral Gables, Downtown Miami, Miami Beach, and surrounding areas.

The GMCVB kicked off their 2019 Art Basel season with the annual Art of Black Miami reception Nov. 19 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

The kickoff tied sports and art by featuring past Super Bowl commissioned sculptor George Gadson as a speaker on the program as well as Miami Gardens (home of the Super Bowl) Mayor Oliver Gilbert.

The event was a precursor to the myriad of Art of Black Miami supported activations taking place during Art Week/Art Basel season which happens annually during the first part of December.

“More and more the awareness is spreading locally, nationally and internationally about the multicultural artistic gems that we have in Miami,” said Connie W. Kinnard, VP of Multicultural Tourism & Development, “and the GMCVB is happy to be the organizer of a program that strives to include all of Miami’s neighborhoods and communities into the larger marketing footprint.”

Art of Black Miami 2019 featured events include:

HISTORIC OVERTOWN

9th Annual Art Africa Miami Art Fair (AAMAF): A Retrospective commemorates nine years of social justice through diasporic arts. This year Art Africa Miami will focus on those artists who have been with fair since the launch. The artists, both local and global, have become recognized as masters in their respective fields showing in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. Through Dec. 8, Plaza at the Lyric. 919 NW 2nd Ave.

LITTLE HAITI

Art Beat Miami Art Fair: The sixth annual event will feature five days of art, culture, food, fashion, and music inspired by Haiti and the Caribbean. South Floridians and tourists will see art from 40 emerging and renowned artists from the Caribbean and around the world, feel the beat of Haitian music while seeing art on the catwalk from local and national fashion designers, taste and enjoy curated fare from renowned Caribbean chefs, attend the fun-filled sip and paint affair, and rub elbows with R&B award winning artist Anthony Hamilton, who will sign his book, “Cornbread Fish ‘N Collard Greens.” Through Dec. 8, Inside the Music Caribbean Marketplace, 5925 NE 2nd Ave.

MUCE ARTS & Culture Festival: Miami Urban Contemporary Experience (MUCE) and Zeal present the exhibition “Who Owns Black Art?” Fifteen influential visual artists will generate compelling imagery that will unapologetically express their definition of black art, the value and meaning of creative expression, culture and heritage.

MUCE ARTS & Culture Festival will feature five creative programming elements over five days. Experience art, music, ceremony, food, panel discussions, interactive place-making and many other engaging onsite activations. Through Dec. 9, MUCE Makers Campus, 246 NW 54th St.

CORAL GABLES

Miami MoCAAD/Lowe Museum Art Week Basel Kickoff: The Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora (Miami MoCAAD) and Lowe Museum will co-sponsor an Art Basel Week Kickoff reception with a conversation that features artist Juan Roberto Diago and Alejandro de la Fuente, curator and founding director, Harvard Afro-Latin American Research Institute. Erica Moiah James, University of Miami Caribbean Art History professor, will moderate the conversation.

The exhibition, “Diago: The Pasts of this AfroCuban Present,” presented by the University of Miami Lowe Art Museum and the Harvard University Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, in collaboration with Miami MoCAAD, offers over two decades of uninterrupted work and traces Diago’s singular efforts to construct new pasts, required to explain the racial tensions of contemporary Cuba. Through Jan. 19, University of Miami Lowe Art Museum, 1301 Stanford Dr.

DOWNTOWN MIAMI

Prizm Art Fair 2019: For its seventh edition, PRIZM will present the work of 39 artists within an exhibition entitled “Love in the Time of Hysteria,” curated and organized by William Cordova, Ryan Dennis, Naiomy Guerrero, Oshun Layne and Mikhaile Solomon. The art illustrates how love, compassion, and respect endure in a social milieu riddled with divisive political rhetoric, unprovoked inflammatory attacks on members of marginalized communities, and broad societal malaise as a result of economic inequity.

Participating galleries include Black Art in America, Espace d’Art Contemporain 14°N 61°W (Martinique), Hearne Fine Art (Little Rock, Ark.), Morton Fine Art (DC), N’Namdi Contemporary (Miami), Richard Beavers Gallery (New York), September Gray (Atlanta), Zucot Gallery, Corentyne Cottage House (New Orleans), and TILA Studios (Atlanta). Through Dec. 8, Alfred I Dupont Building, 169 E. Flagler St.

LITTLE HAVANA

“Umbrellas of Little Havana Art Festival”: The 7th annual “Umbrellas of Little Havana Art Festival” celebrates the spirit of Art Basel Miami with this unique organic festival which showcases the works of 43 local and invited artists. Art of all mediums will adorn Futurama Art Building in the iconic Little Havana Art District with hand-painted patio umbrellas and the artists’ work displayed beneath.

Participating artists include Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, Ali Ko, Blick Art Miami, Carlos Marin, Carlos Mederos, Catalina Correa, Crystal Garcia, Darwin Leon, Gonzalo Borges, Broomi, Jose Carlos Ruiz Rocha, Julio Roberto, Lety Lety, Manuel Bello, Marvin Weeks, Mikeya Brown, Miranda

Pantano, Omar Corrales Mora, Oscar Deroy, Ramon Altamirano, Ulises Sierra, Jonathan & Jaime Olaya, Ramiro Collazo, Wendy Carey, King Redd. Through Dec. 8, Futurama Art Building, 1637 SW 8th St. # 115, North Miami 10th Annual Art Basel Panel Discussion on African Diaspora Art: Celebrating the rising interest in African Diaspora Art, the life and times of Nigerian curator Okwui Enwezor, curatorial activism, art and spirituality, and a 2019 market review on the economics of Contemporary African Diaspora Art.

This year’s panelists will include Dr. Moyo Okejedi, professor of African Art and Art History, University of Texas, Austin; Hannah O’Leary, director of Modern and Contemporary African Art, Sotheby’s UK; Julie Walker, art critic; Sopo Aluko, art collector, Nigerian born actress with credits from the “Black Panther” movie; and Dr. Cheryl Finley, associate professor of Art and Visual Culture, Spellman College. Dec. 8, noon – 3 p.m., Museum of Contemporary Art, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami.