Vorkuta Museum and Exhibition Center

About museum

The Vorkuta Local History Museum was opened on May 3, 1960 by the decision of the Executive Committee of the Vorkuta City Council of Workers' Deputies dated April 28, 1959 and at the initiative of the city's creative and scientific-technical intelligentsia; 50 leading enterprises and organizations of Vorkuta participated in its establishment.

The museum's exhibitions told about the region's origins, the coal industry, civil and industrial construction, the development of science, everyday life and culture. The natural history exhibition was arranged in 1963–64. A year later an art gallery was opened as a department of the museum.

In November 1965 the V.I. Lenin Museum, which had operated on a voluntary basis at Secondary School No. 11 in the settlement of Vorgashor, was transferred to the Vorkuta District Local History Museum and converted into its branch. For many years the V.I. Lenin Museum served as a memorial site where meetings with party veterans and labor heroes took place; top school pupils were admitted to the Young Pioneers and Komsomol, and passports were issued.

In September 1990 a new Exhibition Hall was opened (exhibition area 360 sq. m.). Artists of Vorkuta gained the opportunity to widely and fully present their work at the annual city exhibitions. In addition to art exhibitions, annual city exhibitions of photographic artists (since 2004) and masters of decorative and applied arts are held.

In 2001 the Vorkuta Museum became an associate member of the Union of Museums of Russia.

In July 2008 the museum acquired the status of a legal entity and was transformed into the municipal cultural institution 'Vorkuta Museum and Exhibition Center', and since January 1, 2012 the VMEC has been a municipal budgetary cultural institution.