Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts recently represented diversity, inclusion, and economic justice within the art world at Art Basel Miami Beach, the bedrock of Miami Art Week in Florida.
For a week in December, Miami and Miami Beach are the annual epicenter of the art world. Art Basel Miami Beach is a yearly art fair that gathers hundreds of premier international art galleries to the Miami Convention Center. In 2017, an estimated $3.5 billion in art was purchased and sold during the world-renowned art fair, which attracts both the wealthiest of buyers and casual art consumers alike.
Howard’s art department dispatched a small group of students to Art Basel for the first-time in 2022. In 2023, the department returned with the intention of representing HBCUs and a vision to serve as a bulwark for the role of Black art institutions during Art Basel and beyond.
Events included an art exhibit featuring Howard University students, faculty, and alumni artists. The college also hosted panel discussions on topics such as being an “artrepreneur,” artificial intelligence, and the influence of HBCUs.
Jacoby DuBose (BA ’06), lecturer in the department of art, said his interest in the art week piqued when he realized that it represented a collaborative ecosystem for art institutions, artists, corporations, and local businesses. He recognized the need to infuse representation and racial justice in the proceedings, and is now a part of creating an ongoing HBCU presence at Art Basel.
“As companies started making pledges in the face of a racial reckoning, it really propelled me to better understand this space as a driver of economic power that we should be involved in,” DuBose said.
Article ID: 1851