Abstract: The subject of the research is the role of art in the life of people, actual trends and patterns of communication between human and art as well as processes of changes of artistic needs of a modern society. The aim of the research is to evaluate actual consequences of changes in artistic needs of a modern society that make cultural experts to speak of the crisis of artistic culture. Summing up the results of recent researches that involved surveys of population and art audience for a long period of time and continuing their interpretation, the author evalutes actual changes in the leisure role of art, patterns of communication of art and audience, and actual risks of objective social processes. The methodological basis of the research is the priniple of sociological substantiation of cultural constructs with facts obtained in the course of empirical social measurements. Traditional descriptive methods do not bring us close to understanding the origin and patterns of consumer behavior in art. The author of the article bases the research on the results of empirical research and methods of mathematical statistics based on computer technologies. The novelty of the research is caused by the targets and results of the research. It is the first time in the academic literature that the author raises the problem of defining changes in artistic needs and leisure role of art in a long-term perspective. Determination of consumer behavior patterns in art is a new task as well. As a result of the research, the author discovers and describes some fundamental patterns of introducing arts to human, cultural evolution of consumer, and reproduction of art audience. 

Abstract: The subject of the research is the peculiarities and patterns of consumer behavior of the State Tretyakov Gallery audience, available cultural activities, and the author's attempt to define and measure their determinants. The growing interest towards audience preferences on the cultural activities market creates the need for cultural institutions to analyze the audience needs and modify the functional and format of the main activity in accordance with contemporary trends and demands. Museum specialists have come to understanding that without taking into account the needs of the audience, it is impossible to overcome the communication barriers between museum and audience. Sometimes museum specialists try to classify and manage their audience the same way as they classify and manage their exhibit items. On the other hand, they continue their traditional attempts to analyze the audience based on personal traits that are attributable to their visitors a priori. Today this is perceived as a rather limited approach that hinders from the actual understanding of true patterns of consumer behavior. Based on the author of the article, application of methods of mathematical statistics and econometrics to analyze sociological data expands opportunities for the sociology of art and signifies a shift to a fundamentally new level of research validity. In his article Ushkarev presents several new theoretical results of a grand-scale survey that involved the audience of the State Tretyakov Gallery. As part of his research, Ushkarev studies the museum audience based on conceptual features that go far beyond the borders of traditional socio-demographic descriptions but not only on objective parameters that are traditionally described by art sociologists. The interdisciplinary approach used by Ushkarev in his research has allowed to define cultural activities of the art museum audience and the impact of subjective and unmeasurable dimensions of the audience such as motivation and cultural capital. 

Abstract: Analysis of the audience always remains one of the key objectives in a study of social functions of art. However, the world is so rapidly changing that what was thought to be true long ago is now turning out to be illusion or banality. What is the problem and what do we know about the art audience today? How research approaches to creating concepts and methods that would be adequate to modern science targets have been developing? These are the questions this article is devoted to. Briefly tracing back Russia's experience in conceptualization of art audience and methodology of sociological research of audience, the author of the article outlines the main problem and describes high-priority tasks in a sociological analysis of the art audience. Traditioinal approaches of sociology of art, psychology or marketing do not give a full understanding of trends and patterns of consumer behavior and thus may lead to ignoring some potentially important determinants. Application of interdisciplinary methods allows to reveal hidden statistical patterns and assess determinants of consumer behavior that cannot be measured by traditional methods but play a crucial role. This means the shift to a completely new level of research validity. The most valuable conclusion of the research is that man-and-art relationship is not accidental but determined by both objective characteristics and intellectual cultural resources and external influence of the social and cultural environment. Along with that, there is a growing understanding that the art audience of different kinds still have much in common although each of them has their own peculiarities. The research results contribute to art studies and analysis of social functions of art, and offer new prospective methodological approaches that become available due to interdisciplinary convergence. 
 

Abstract: The subject of the research is Russia's experience in studying the audience of art museums as well as development of the sociological research methodology that can be applied to analyse the audience of art museums. The object of the research is the research articles devoted to sociological surveys of the art museum audience in Russia starting from the 20s of the XXth century. The author focuses on the modern state of the relationship between art museums and audience. This allows to trace back the evolution of how museums have understood their audience as well as define particular research methods, identify the problem situation and outline the priority tasks in the sociological study of the art museum audience. The author applies the dialectical approach to studying the experience of social resaerch of the art audience. The research also involves materials that have had the greatest influence on the evolution of the concept of the art museum audience and their research methodology. The main result of the study is the reconstruction of the real picture and the degree of study as the characteristics of the audience of art museums, and the basic patterns of consumer behavior in relation to art. A large number of publications on the results of concrete sociological studies of the audience of museums, held by generations of scientists and museum enthusiasts with different goals and at different scientific and methodological levels, sometimes creates the illusory impression that most problems in this area have already been resolved. However, insufficient understanding of some important patterns of consumer behavior preserves the general problematic situation, which manifests itself in the existence of communication barriers between museums and the audience.

Abstract: The subject of the study is the evolution of the museum's understanding of its audience and its key parameters, the development of scientific approaches and the methodology of sociological research of museum audience, conditioned by this process. The object of the study is the experience and methodology of studying the audience of museum visitors abroad - in Europe and the US, tracked by the publication of the results of sociological research. The main attention is paid to the current state of scientific knowledge of the relationship between art museums and the public, as well as a methodology that is adequate to modern tasks. The dialectical approach is used to study the experience of the audience of art. The study also involves materials from researches that have had the greatest impact on the evolution of the understanding of the audience of art museums and the methodology for their study. The author presents a wide range of interests, trends and scientific approaches that characterize the current state of museum sociology in the West and have, in the final analysis, the main goal to overcome communication barriers, attract the audience and increase attendance. An increasingly common tendency has been found for the steady drift of museums in the channel of society serving, understanding that museums should always remain a space for cultural growth, continuous education, and also a tool for maintaining positive health and well-being.