The collection includes works of domestic and foreign art, as well as a large ethnographic collection.He began working in 1919 as a department of the Central Proletarian Museum of Poltava region; until 1940 it was called the Art Gallery. Since 1940 it has the status of an independent museum.It has more than 9,000 works of art. The basis of the collection were the works of the pre-eminent artist Nikolai Yaroshenko, which, according to the will of his wife, were transferred to his native city. Another name of the museum is the Poltava Art Gallery named after M. Yaroshenko.