The Cherepovets Museum Association was established in 1989 ., and the main museum in it was originally a local lore, whose history numbered by then a hundred years .Today, in aggregate, the collections of the museum association make up about a third of the exhibits of the entire Vologda region .The complex includes several museums, most of which occupy historical buildings in the city and beyond: the Historical and Local History Museum, the museums of nature and archeology, the Vereshchagin House Museum, the Igor Severyanin Literary Museum, the historic Galsky Manor Museum, Museum of Milutin, art museum and children's museum .

The Historical and Ethnographic Museum "The Gal'sky Estate" is a restored nobleman's estate of one of the best farms in the region. The restored wooden master's house is counted among the monuments of architecture of federal significance. In the museum you can get acquainted with the provincial noble life, as it was a century and a half ago.

The house-museum of Vereshchagin is dedicated to the remarkable battle artist Vasily Vereshchagin. In it you can see not only the reproductions of his most famous paintings, the originals of which are kept in world museums, but also the objects of life of the artist and his family.

The Literature Museum of Igor Severyanin is not located in Cherepovets, but in a village 40 km away. It occupies an old wooden building of a former manor belonging to the uncle of the famous poet of the Silver Age. In the museum you can see photo archives and other documents, and besides - a small collection of modern paintings and graphics.

The Art Museum of Cherepovets has a unique collection, in which a separate place is devoted to the collections of Russian painting of the late 18th - early 20th centuries. A special pride of the museum is the collection of Orthodox art: the icons of this museum are known not only in Russia, but also abroad. In addition, in the expositions you can admire the furnishings, dishes, bronze figurines. There is also a collection of mechanical musical instruments. The gallery of contemporary art is open at the museum.

There is a permanent exhibition "The City of the Young - Ancient City", from which one can learn about the past of the places since the earliest times. The museum stores the weapons of the warrior of the Horde, uniforms and weapons of Russian army officers, women's noble dresses and peasant clothes. Also here you can see the reconstructed residential interiors of the 20th century.

The funds of the archaeological museum number more than 100 thousand artifacts, the oldest of which is about 10 thousand years. Among them there are unique objects, such as amber jewelry, which is already 3 thousand years old, cult and ritual objects, etc. The museum organizes interactive events, during which it is possible to try to obtain fire with the help of sticks, shoot from the bow, try something to weave out and be photographed in military medieval armor.

Cherepovets Museum of Nature is one of the oldest departments of the whole complex. The Museum of Local Nature was opened in 1920, and today there are important collections of insects, minerals and geological samples, plants, as well as paleontological samples.