Interests: A prerequisite for the development of the art audience

Abstract

The concept of art audience is understood as that, very small, part of population which possesses developed cultural needs and developed and regular cultural practice. Using Guy Debord's words we set a question: What are the chances for the arts compared with the glittering appearances of a spectacle in the modern world in which the tendency towards general banalization dominates? This question is considered as essential for cultural protagonists. Following Nemanjic's theory about cultural needs, we emphasize that the cultural need is formed as a cultural interest, which means that interests have a crucial role in the development of cultural needs, and consequently in cultural consumption. Accordingly, we think that the understanding of the importance of interests as a prerequisite for the development of the art audience is one of the most significant issues in the theory and practice of management in culture. The aim of the paper is to present the concept and its numerous factors in the process of forming and developing interests, as well as to point to the necessity and possibilities of the development of artistic interests, the latter being especially relevant to the management/managers of cultural institutions.