The Kursk State Art Gallery named after A. A. Deineka is one of the outstanding art museums in Russia. Its collection features paintings, sculptures, and graphics by domestic and foreign masters from the 16th to the 21st century, as well as items of folk and decorative applied art from the 18th and 20th centuries.

The history of the gallery's collection began in 1903-1905, when the first artworks were donated by private individuals, including the governor of Kursk, N. N. Gordeev, a well-known patron of museums. The foundation of the collection consisted of paintings from the Kursk collections of the Baryatinskys, Nelidovs, Shvartsevs, and Rebinders, although some significant works of European and Russian painting from nationalized estates did not make it to the Kursk collections and are now housed in capital museums.

In the 1920s, several attempts were made to open an arts museum in Kursk, and in 1935 this idea was realized. About 200 exhibits from the art department of the local history museum were allocated to create the Kursk Art Gallery. The first exhibition was held in the Sergiev-Kazan Cathedral, an architectural monument of the 18th century, and included works of Western European and Russian painting, as well as pieces by Kursk artists.

Today, the gallery's collection numbers around ten thousand exhibits. In addition to the desire to fully reflect Russian art, the gallery collects works by artists whose lives are connected to Kursk, such as Vyacheslav Shvarts, Konstantin Trutovsky, and Yefim Cheptsov.

Particular attention is paid to the creative legacy of Alexander Deineka, whose name the gallery has borne since 1969. The collection of his works in Kursk is unique and extensive. Deineka's works have been exhibited in Russia and abroad, receiving high praise in the press.

An important place in the gallery is occupied by the restoration workshop, the only one in the region, which has restored hundreds of paintings and icons.

The gallery staff engages in scientific research related to the attribution of artworks and the study of artistic culture. Since 1999, scientific conferences have been held, and collections of reports have been published. The gallery's publishing activities include a variety of souvenirs and popular science publications.

The gallery strives to combine traditional museum forms with new ones. In addition to lectures and excursions, there are multimedia lectures and popular mini-tours of Kursk. In 2004, the gallery received a diploma for expanding social activity, and in 2006 it participated in charitable programs for children from orphanages. In 2008, the gallery joined a project to study and popularize the work of Alexander Deineka.

In 2009, the gallery's project "Advertising Space for Rent" won the competition "A Changing Museum in a Changing World." The gallery's motto is: "Preserving, enhancing, studying, developing, showcasing, transforming!"