This dissertation discovers a hybrid collaborative curation and creation exhibition project at the Florida State University's Museum of Fine Arts. This research serves as a tangible application to integrate the third place theory (Oldenburg, 1997) and constructivist museum practices (Hein, 1998) under the umbrella of participatory action research. The co-curated exhibition "The Art of Bonding" invited diverse co-curators, artists, and visitors as co-curators and co-creators. "The Art of Bonding" examined how a collaboration curation exhibition in a university art museum became a microcosm of third place. Throughout the findings, this research emphasized the co-curators' role evolutions in collaborative curation progress. I summarized four findings from the research, they are 1) fostering third place through collaborative curation, 2) participatory engagement and collaboration knowledge construction, 3) improving virtual engagement and accessibility for hybrid exhibition, and 4) enhancing physical visitor interaction in third place.For further research, we can focus on how to explore other community engagement and museum learning theories to apply to the co-curation practices, have an actively participatory action research plan, and conduct comparison studies from different organizations. Additionally, this research analyzes the hybrid exhibition that integrated physical and digital exhibition platforms and investigates their impact on community engagement, and contribution to the academic art museum third place construction. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]