The paper presents a theoretical study of the problem of identifying the role of tradition and intercultural dialogue as an important factor of existence and development of the folk art. Their expression is justified by the example of Palekh art as a part of Russian culture ethno art. Urgency of the problem is caused by the need to overcome the contradictions between all the growing interest in the world to the traditional folk art and the trends of the international community to globalization, inevitably leading to a blurring of the uniqueness of the local traditional cultures; process of careful preservation of tradition in folk art, as for the value of a certain kind of art and the process of impact of these elements on a "foreign" culture, preserving the traditions of folk art and the ability to ensure their optimal functioning in the modern world.

The study revealed that the functioning of folk art is a variable process, depending on the volatility of the set of interrelated phenomena such as internal (technological, artistic, imaginative, style, etc.) and external (ideological, historical, domestic, cross-cultural etc.). Current status of folk art demonstrates the ambiguity of its socio-cultural status. On the one hand the increased interest in traditional artistic values, on the other - not "formal", "conservative", and as a consequence - the gradual decay and often dying crafts. In modern philosophical and aesthetic science it is recognized indisputable that in the artistic culture of any people it always has a fixed place, which varies little in rod culture, formed mainly at the expense of tradition, around which volatile cultural sphere operates. That tradition is due to the peculiarity of specific cultures, which is reflected in the system of artistic and figurative language and style. And variability and development of traditions is provided as due to the action of their own creative principles (repetition, variation, improvisation), and through the dialogue of cultures. Elements of foreign cultural borrowing, acting as the beginning of innovation for the borrowing culture, gradually transformed, taking on the features of its own tradition, becoming an integral part of it. Due to this, there are problems of correlation of the traditional and the contemporary, ethnic and universal principle in culture and art. Hence the importance of not only the tradition of cultural dynamics, but also other, equally important factors - cultural dialogue.

In the study, the traditional art of Palekh has been considered not only as a product of tradition, deterministic natural, historical factors, but in the context of the dialogue of cultures. In its development, it took at least three major periods.

The first period (XVII - beginning of XX century) is the beginning, prosperity, decline and termination of Palekh icon painting style. Local style features were formed on the basis of the traditions of ancient art, foreign cultural influences (European art rococo and classicism).

The second stage (the first third of the twentieth century - the end of the twentieth century) is the development of a new branch in Palekh art - lacquer miniatures with their own artistic and imaginative system. This system was based on the ideology of Palekh painters who transformed the tradition of foreign (Chinese, Japanese), Russian lacquer masters (Zhostovo, Lacquer, Nizhny Tagil, etc.). An important component of the new art was old Russian paintings (icons) - writing technique, styling techniques, the contingent forms found in the Middle Ages, as well as a wealth of experience in a beautiful organization of the plane .

In the third period (turn of the XX-XXI centuries) Palekh icon painting revives on the Palekh land. And the tradition to preserve and enrich the new generations of artists reveals itself again. In the history of Palekh clearly organic interaction anxiously guarded traditions and dialogue across time and space: the icon-painters who survived the revolution (1917), saved (mothballed) the age-old tradition in the art of icon painting lacquer miniatures Another generation of artists of the 70s repeated the way of the old masters, beginning the revival of traditions in the lacquer miniature, after their elimination during the harsh ideological dictates. At the turn of the twenty-first century new generations of artists, not only preserved and developed the traditions of miniatures, but their credit was the reconstruction of iconographic tradition. Thus, taken in the world art in all its diversity , soaked up all the best tune with people's understanding of the world, passing through the perceived natural peculiarity, Palekh art today is recognized as a worldwide phenomenon, as the personification of the historical memory and national identity of the people functioning in modern culture .