The main building of the Velsk Local History Museum, located in the historical center of the city, was constructed by a merchant from the Tavrengskaya volost of the Velsk district, P. A. Sobolev, just before the start of World War I. At the end of 2018, on the museum's grounds, the first and only museum of house paintings in the Považye region opened in the restored old Kichyov house, built in 1884, where unique paintings by famous masters of the Petrovsky period can be seen.

In 2019, the museum expanded, opening a new exhibition space in a historic building that belonged to merchant Vasily Shichyov. Here, a new exhibition featuring unique artifacts, which had long been stored away due to the lack of suitable space with modern microclimate control systems, was established. For example, a treasure from the Time of Troubles, found on the banks of the Velya River near the village of Shunema in the mid-1960s, was restored in St. Petersburg in the 1990s but had never been displayed before. Among the exhibits is a unique hanging Easter egg from the late 19th century, which, according to experts, has no analogs in Russian museums.

The Velsk Local History Museum, now known as the State Budgetary Institution of Culture of the Arkhangelsk Region "Velsk Local History Museum Named After V.F. Kulakov," was founded in May 1919 based on a unique collection of antiquities from local peasant V.F. Kulakov. The museum's collection includes over 28,000 items, including 22,150 units in the main fund. Among the most valuable collections are bronze pendants (10th, 14th centuries), wooden household items (18th, 19th centuries), carved wooden crosses and icons (16th, early 20th centuries), church chronicles, confession and metric books (18th, early 20th centuries), late Russian icons (18th, early 20th centuries), fragments of house paintings (late 19th, early 20th centuries), naive painting (19th, early 20th centuries), and more.

The museum features four exhibitions: "Nature and Natural Resources of the Velsk District" (1989, re-exposition 2014), "History of Považye from Ancient Times to the Early 20th Century" (1992, re-expositions 2013, 2016), the exhibition and display complex "Museum of House Paintings of Považye" (2018), and "Velsk District in 1917, 1964: History and Fates" (2019). A new exhibition hall also opened in 2019.

Based on the exhibitions, museum staff have developed and conduct numerous tours and lectures for visitors on the history of Považye and the creativity of its inhabitants.