A paradigm shift is happening in exhibition making that centers the rethinking of the (para)curatorial, educational and the institutional. Exhibitions are leaving their traditional locations in museums to instead take place at festivals and in clubs, thus blurring the line between event and exhibition. In the view of this thesis, events taking place in alternative exhibition settings have the potential to be constructed as radical democratic spaces. This thesis explores art education and curating as practices that contribute towards breaking the conventions of how and where art is staged and mediated. Through both a literature review and case study analysis of three key events in alternative exhibition settings, practices that act on and influence democratic processes are examined. The central concluding argument is that hybrid curatorial and educational practices create space for transformation, negotiation, community-building, and potentially inclusive and democratic futures through the generation of alternative forms of knowledge, exchange and participation.
