happening
n. countablen. a type of art performance or event that is often strange and unplanned. It usually involves the people watching it and feels very spontaneous.
n. a partly improvised or spontaneous performance or event, typically involving audience participation. Associated with the avant-garde art movements of the 1950s and 60s.
The local art gallery is hosting a strange happening tonight.
The artist organized a happening in the park where strangers were invited to paint on a giant shared canvas.
Early happenings challenged the traditional boundaries between spectator and creator, transforming the gallery space into a site of unpredictable social and artistic exchange.
From Middle English happenynge, happnynge. By surface analysis, happen + -ing.
From Middle English happenyng, equivalent to happen + -ing. As term used in performance art popularized by Allan Kaprow.
Often used in historical art contexts to describe specific performance-based events.