Rochelle Malcolm

Curating the Frontline: Race and the Contest for Urban Space at the Brixton Art Gallery, 1983–1988, intervenes in the dominant narrative of 1980s Brixton in south London. While this area is frequently discussed in terms of economic deprivation, violent policing, and the 1981 uprising on the "Frontline," this dissertation offers an alternative narrative. It reveals a complex geography where grassroots organizers navigated municipal bureaucracy, precarious property agreements, and state power to build sites of cultural production and intersectional solidarity. Through the micro-history of the Brixton Art Gallery, my dissertation argues that the spatial politics of race were inextricably linked not only to the structural political economy of 1980s London but also to the specific administrative and legal mechanisms governing public space. By examining the gallery’s reliance on municipal funding and temporary leaseholds, my project investigates Brixton as a laboratory for progressive intervention. In doing so, I highlight the complex structural vulnerabilities required to sustain radical spaces within a shifting political and commercial landscape.