Abstract: In today's society PR technologies are used not only in commercial projects but also in non-profit ones such as activities of art museums. The article presents an overview of the main problems of modern museum marketing in terms of promoting non-profit art museums through popularization of their collections. Branding of art museums is considered as the core technology here. Key issues related to implementation of technologies described in modern researchesare identified based on the example of the analysis of activities in the Krasnoyarsk Museum of Art named after Surikov during the period since 2011 till 2012. The methodology of the present research is the algorithm of creating a brand which is also discussed by today's museum community as the mechanism for popularizastion of museum funds of different kinds and sizes. The main conclusions of the research relate to understanding the actual status of PR technologies in the activity of art museums. Today's situation with art museums emphasizes the need for qualitative interaction between young museum staff generating and developing new ideas and museum 'old identities' who have unique knowledge about museum pieces. The fact that there is no such communication now has a negative effect on the depth and quality of activities and events arranged at art museums.