An Online Community as an Alternative Site

This thesis focuses on the online community "Artes Plásticas Brasil" (in English: Visual Arts Brazil), a Brazilian online community focused on art, and its use as an alternative site for participation in the art world in Brazil. As Brazil is increasingly becoming more important in the global art world, it is interesting to explore whether Brazilians are experiencing such art world online, as research had shown most of the population has never set foot in an art museum. The aim of the investigation was to study to what extent the online community worked as an alternative site for participation in the art world. A mixed method approach that encompassed content analysis of the forum, interview of the active participants and a survey was employed, touching on themes such as democratization of knowledge and construction of knowledge online and the construct of social capital online. Results show that the online community is not really serving as an alternative site for participation in the art world in Brazil, but rather, more as an extension of it.