The Starooskolsky Art Museum is located on the site where the ancestral home of Ilarion Ilarionovich Simonov once stood, a well-known merchant and mayor of Stary Oskol in the late 19th century. Thanks to his support, the city saw the establishment of a charitable institution and five houses near the Akhtyrskaya Church, which no longer exists. Simonov was respected among the townspeople and was known as a patron of the arts.

In 1889, the first telephone and telephone exchange in the city were installed in Simonov's house, and in 1906, a telegraph. According to some sources, the house was destroyed during the Great Patriotic War; according to others, it was demolished and rebuilt in the post-war years.

In 1951, a small two-story mansion in classical style was built on Lenin Street, adorned with medallions and arches. The building was originally intended for workers of the mechanical plant, and the family of the plant's director, Philip Tikhonovich Efimov, lived there. He lovingly arranged the courtyard, planting apricots and lilacs. Museum visitors still rest in the shade of the apple tree planted by Efimov.

In the late 1980s, the building was transferred to the art museum, and its interiors were completely reconstructed, preserving only the load-bearing walls. The first floor housed the administration and storage, while the second floor contained exhibition halls. The museum opened on June 28, 1988, on the day of the XIX All-Union Conference of the CPSU in Moscow. In 1992, the building was included in the list of protected historical and cultural monuments as an example of residential construction from the 1950s.

Since 1989, the first head of the museum, which was initially a branch of the State Belgorod Art Museum, was Alexander Fedorovich Yost. Valery Ivanovich Cherkashin, a senior researcher and art historian, was responsible for assembling the collection. In 1995, the museum became a branch of the Starooskolsky Local History Museum, and Zoya Alexandrovna Rtishcheva became its head. Since 1998, the museum has been managed by Elena Mikhailovna Markova, under whose leadership it became an independent cultural institution and began organizing interregional exhibitions.

The museum's collection consists of four departments: painting, graphics, decorative and applied arts, and sculpture. It covers the development of Soviet and post-Soviet art from the 1940s to the present day. The foundation of the collection was formed by works transferred from the Art Fund of the RSFSR and other organizations, and later it was supplemented by works from contemporary authors from the Black Earth region and artists from the CIS countries.

The museum takes pride in the works of People's Artists of the RSFSR, such as N. Ya. But and K. M. Maximov, as well as honored artists and laureates of state awards. The contemporary art department features works by Starooskol artists, including I. N. Khegay and E. M. Markova. Efforts to expand the museum's collection continue.