On April 17, 1983, the Union of Artists of Russia opened a gallery in the village of Tess in honor of the 135th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Surikov. This was related to the fact that in 1865 and 1873, the future artist visited his sister E. Vinogradova, who lived here, several times. The collective farm "Iskra Lenina" received 140 paintings, 130 graphic works, and 30 sculptures, as well as 30 posters, 16 applied art pieces, and 14 theatrical and film sketches from 304 masters of visual arts from different corners of the USSR. In 2010, the gallery was granted the status of MBUK "Tessin Art Museum."

The museum is located in a small wooden building, constructed in 1970 on the site of the Tess Mother of God-Kazan Church, which was opened in 1805 and destroyed in 1966. The museum conducts educational and cultural programs for a wide audience. The cultivation of moral culture is carried out through creative meetings "About Tess with Love," programs "We Enter the World of Beauty," "Living Word," "Invitation to the Museum," as well as patriotic museum programs. The museum includes 6 halls, which house 4 collections: painting, graphics, sculpture, and decorative-applied art, totaling 755 items from 360 authors. The museum features exhibitions: "Vasily Surikov and the Village of Tessinskoye," "Vadim Yelin and Agrarian-Industrial Tess," "Everyday Life and Culture of the Russian Hut in the 19th Century."