The museum was established in August 1960 by order
of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR.
In 1994, in
connection with the transfer to the operational management of the
Museum of Fine Arts of architectural monuments of the 18th - 19th
centuries located in the historical and protected area "Old
Arkhangelsk", the Museum received the status of the State Museum
Association "Artistic Culture of the Russian North".
The
first director of the museum was Nina Andreevna Tomilova, then the
artist Mikhail Sergeevich Barancheev. Since 1965 Maya Vladimirovna
Mitkevich has been the permanent director.
In 1966, the
museum opened its expositions for the first time. In two small halls
on the first floor of a five-story residential building at st.
Narodnaya, 3 (now Vybornova passage) about fifty works of Russian
painting and graphics were exhibited.
In 1975, a permanent
exposition of the museum was opened, occupying two floors of a
residential building on the central square of the city, where four
departments were presented - Old Russian, folk, Russian classical
and Soviet art.
Currently, the Museum of Fine Arts houses
permanent exhibitions of the Museum Association "Artistic Culture of
the Russian North": Christian art of the 14th - 20th centuries.
(painting, sculpture, arts and crafts); folk art of the Russian
North (northern Russian folk costume, Kholmogory bone carving,
painting and woodcarving, weaving and embroidery, clay toys).
In 2008, the Museum of Fine Arts opened the information and
educational center "Russian Museum: Virtual Branch". This is an
information and educational class and a multimedia cinema. It
organizes screenings of multimedia films, interactive educational
programs created by the employees of the Russian Museum on the basis
of their collections. The center hosts thematic exhibitions,
classes, lectures, incl. on-line, and many more. others
- Christian art of the XIV - XIX centuries.
- Art
of the XX - beginning of the XXI centuries.
- Russian art of the late
XVIII - early XX centuries.
— Folk art of the Russian North of the
19th — early 20th centuries: Kholmogory bone carving, weaving and
embroidery, northern Russian folk costume, painting and woodcarving,
clay toys
— Arkhangelsk artists of the XX-XXI centuries
On city buses No. 1, 9, 11, 42, 43, 44, 54, 60, 62, 65, 75b, 76 - stop "Petrovsky Park".