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Visiting the Harlem Fine Arts Show is like taking a trip back in time to the Harlem Renaissance of the early 1900s. James Van Der Zee was the first photographer to focus on the emerging black middle class of that era.

"People were very much needing to show that they were arriving. They were coming into themselves, into this opportunity that was here," says Donna Van Der Zee, James’ widow.

The third annual show brings together 100 established and up-and-coming artists from all over the world this weekend at the Riverside Church.

During this Black History Month, the photographs and paintings are like pages of a history textbook. Most of the art focuses on the positive parts of the past.

"It's a great way to see like images, positive types of images, like images that can motivate you and make you want to step up in terms of your opportunities in life," says Dion Clarke, founder of the arts show.

By using shoe polish in some of his artwork, Frank Frazier turns one of the negatives of black history into a positive lesson for young people.

"Back then, they used to paint their faces, and the Ku Klux Klan used to use the shoe polish brush, the little brush to do the KKK, so I just wanted to turn it around," says Frazier.

As for modern day Harlem, it is going through a renaissance again. Organizers of the art show say artists play a key role in keeping this neighborhood thriving.

"They hang out in the new cafes and the new stores in the Harlem area like the Red Rooster, and they still go back to the Sylvia's, and there's the Apollo theater, so it's a nice blending, the reemergence of the community itself," says Clarke.

It’s a community where the future is rooted in a rich past.