Three years of art fairs quietly ducking the AI question just ended inside a submission category.

Miami Art Week 2026 is restructuring, and on the surface the changes read like housekeeping. A new media festival. A new nonprofit. A planetarium instead of a booth. Then you reach the list of what the festival accepts, and there it is in plain type, per the organization's own announcement: AI-generated creative works, named alongside traditional filmmaking, animation, and documentary.

Applications go live in late August. The week itself runs November 30 through December 6.

What Is New at Miami Art Week 2026

Three changes are on the table.

The ARTWEEK Miami Media Festival. Presented by Miami Art Week and referred to on the organization's site as the Miami Media Festival, it joins arteNXT and photoMIAMI, the platform's two existing juried exhibitions. It is built around short-form visual storytelling and the photoMIAMI international photography competition, and it accepts short films, micro-short films, and photography.

The venue. Selected entries will screen at the Frost Science Museum Planetarium and other Greater Miami locations in December 2026. A dome, not a convention hall booth. For time-based work that is not a cosmetic upgrade. Nobody has ever stood in a trade fair aisle and felt surrounded.

The Art Week Global Foundation. A Florida-based not-for-profit launched to advance education, public programming, and opportunities that strengthen Miami's creative ecosystem year-round. Details beyond that framing have not yet been released.

Why the AI Category Matters More Than the Planetarium

Here is the part that travels further than the venue.

Art fairs have spent three years avoiding a position on AI-generated work. Galleries have quietly declined it. Juries have quietly deprioritized it. Most fair leadership has said nothing on the record, which is its own kind of position, just a cheaper one.

Naming AI-generated creative works as an accepted category in an open call is a different act. It is a public statement that the work is eligible to be judged next to everything else, rather than filed into a novelty sidebar where it can be admired and ignored at the same time. The collector-side conversation has been running the other way, as this publication covered when collectors started choosing humans over AI. An open call that lists both as eligible to be judged alongside everything else is the first real test of that instinct.

The Submission Guidelines Are the Document to Read

That decision creates questions the guidelines will have to answer when they publish.

How does authorship get attributed when a model did the rendering? Will entrants have to disclose which tools they used, and at what stage of the work? Will AI entries be juried against traditional film in the same category, or scored separately? Does training-data provenance factor into eligibility at all?

None of it is answered yet. The organization has said submission guidelines and dates are still to come. So the honest status is this: a category exists, and the rulebook for it does not. For an artist deciding whether to enter, and for anyone tracking how the art world institutionalizes AI rather than just arguing about it, that document is the thing to read closely when it drops in late August.

Where This Sits in the Miami Art Fairs December 2026 Landscape

Context matters here, and it is the easiest thing in this story to get wrong.

Miami Art Week is the umbrella term for the December cluster. The miamiartweek.org platform lists more than 20 fairs under it, including Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Miami, NADA Miami, Untitled, SCOPE, PINTA, PRIZM, Design Miami, plus its own arteNXT and photoMIAMI. Those fairs are independently operated. The platform promotes and coordinates. It does not run Art Basel.

That distinction is about to get tested.

The Twist: The Anchor Fair Is Negotiating for More Control

As Artnet reported in July, Art Basel is negotiating a new agreement with the City of Miami Beach that includes an expanded zone of exclusivity intended to limit competing art events in the city. It is part of a package that could reduce the fair's rent by up to $9 million over ten years. Nothing is signed. It is a negotiation, not a done deal, and the terms are still being worked out.

Art Basel Miami Beach 2026 runs December 4 to 6, with invitation-only preview days December 2 and 3.

Now hold the two stories next to each other. A satellite platform is expanding its programming, launching a foundation, and staking out AI territory. In the same season, the anchor fair is seeking more control over what else is allowed to happen during the week. Those trajectories are pointed directly at one another.

The Takeaway

The interesting fight in Miami this December is not which booth has the priciest canvas. It is a question of who gets to define the week.

One side is trying to widen the tent by adding formats, adding a nonprofit, and putting a contested medium on the official list. The other side is trying to narrow the field by contract. Both are rational. Both are being decided by paperwork that has not been made public: one submission guideline, one municipal agreement. How they resolve will shape what Miami Art Week looks like in 2027 and beyond.

Everyone will be watching the art. The leverage is in the documents.

Key Dates and Details

• Miami Art Week 2026: November 30 through December 6, across Greater Miami.
• Applications for the ARTWEEK Miami Media Festival: open in late August 2026. Guidelines and deadlines were still pending at the time of writing.
• Accepted formats: short films, micro-short films, and photography, including traditional filmmaking, animation, documentaries, and AI-generated creative works.
• Screenings: Frost Science Museum Planetarium and additional Greater Miami locations, December 2026.
• Art Basel Miami Beach 2026: December 4 to 6, with invitation-only previews December 2 and 3.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Miami Art Week 2026?

November 30 through December 6, 2026, across Greater Miami.

What is the ARTWEEK Miami Media Festival?

A new festival presented by Miami Art Week that accepts short films, micro-short films, and photography. The categories include traditional filmmaking, animation, documentaries, and AI-generated creative works.

Does the festival really accept AI-generated art?

Yes. AI-generated creative works are listed as an accepted category. Detailed submission guidelines had not been published as of late August 2026, so the rules for how that work gets judged are still unwritten.

When do applications open?

Late August 2026. Guidelines and deadlines were still pending at the time of writing.

Where will selected work screen?

The Frost Science Museum Planetarium and additional Greater Miami locations, in December 2026.

What is the Art Week Global Foundation?

A newly launched Florida not-for-profit focused on education, public programming, and strengthening Miami's creative ecosystem year-round. Nothing beyond that framing has been released.

Is Miami Art Week the same thing as Art Basel?

No, and this is the one people get wrong. Miami Art Week is the umbrella term for the December fair cluster and the name of the platform that promotes it. Art Basel Miami Beach is one independently operated fair inside that week.