Looking at Arts Institutions, Communities, and Space: Reflections and Research from the Field of Art Sociology

In this introduction to the journal issue, the editors characterize the individual scholarly articles included in the volume. They also briefly recall their research interests in the field of art. The texts in the volume deal with three intertwining dimensions: cultural and art institutions, communities (artistic and aesthetic), and space. Most of the authors presented their research at the academic conference ‘Esthetic Communities and Artistic Institutions’ (2023), organized by the Art Sociology Section of the Polish Sociological Association. Polish contemporary sociology of art is mainly empirical sociology. Qualitative research in the field of art sociology in Poland has been used since the 1960s. Initially, they had been treated as experimental, gradually transforming into an increasingly common approach. Sociologists most often used various types of qualitative analyses of materials as well as interviews. Researchers still often use these techniques today, but one can also see the use of other methods, e.g., as part of the art-based research approach (this methodological orientation was used in one of the articles).