His portrait of MLK in a hoodie went viral. Now he shares a message in his Downtown Disney art

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

There’s a hidden door in Downtown Disney.Only this one isn’t meant to be walked through.Flanking a stage near the monorail station, you’ll find a glistening white tower, the work of artist and activist Nikkolas Smith, who has adopted the term “artivist.” At first glance, the tower — one of Downtown Disney’s most striking works — appears to be a nod to Disneyland’s Midcentury art, for its curved lines and space-age optimism wouldn’t be out of place in Tomorrowland.

That’s there, says Smith, but there are also a number of more subtle inspirations.The tower is a nod to five Black architects, trailblazers whose creations sometimes went unnoticed or overlooked.

And that’s why at the base of the structure is a looping opening meant to signify a half-open doorway.Smith shares a distressing anecdote.“They had to learn how to read drawings upside down, because they weren’t allowed to sit next to the white clients,” Smith says, adding they also had to endure unequal pay.

“So I was incorporating things like the half doorway to symbolize their struggle.”Officially designated as the Legacy Tower, Smith himself fixates on that word — “legacy.” The term, he says, represents a thematic constant across his work.A regular collaborator on a number of Walt Disney Co.

projects and a former architect with Walt Disney Imagineering, the division of the company focused on theme park experiences, Smith is something of a connector.His canvas art, full of fast-moving brush work, is often rooted in the past while urgently seeking to draw links to the present.

His 2025 children’s book, “The History of We,” tells the story of how humanity can trace its roots to Africa.And one of his best-known pieces is of Martin Luther King Jr.

in a hoodie, meant to evoke the image of Trayvon Martin, the slain 17-year-old whose death inspired a social justice movement.The wo...