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ArtsAcre was originally an institution for nurturing young artists in the field of visual arts.

Its modestly-built original campus was inaugurated on 11 January 1987 by Günter Grass ~ German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature ~ with an exposition of his drawings.

On 3 March 1984, the sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar laid the foundation stone of a dream called ArtsAcre. It crystallised into an institution of national and international standing. Gradually, the campus became a haven for budding artists and meeting point for men of letters.

Chintamani Kar, Mrinal Sen, Bhabesh Sanyal, Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Ashok Mitra, Santosh Kumar Ghosh, Gour Kishore Ghosh, Arun Mitra, Mulk Raj Anand, Khushwant Singh, Sibnarayan Ray, NS Bendre, Annada Shankar Ray, Satish Gujral and Manjit Bawa among other eminent personalities associated with ArtsAcre.

They visited the campus often to encourage the artists.

Guest artists from around the world came and worked at ArtsAcre. Exchange of ideas and workshops became a frequent happening.

An exchange programme with international artists led to exhibitions by ArtsAcre artists in London and Washington, eventually.

The Museum is one of its kind in India. It showcases the evolution of Bengal Art from colonial times. It includes traditional art forms, group movements, and works from pioneering stalwarts to new breeds of artists.

The 40,000 square feet space covers English Lithography, Chorbagan Prints, Kalighat Pats, the Tagores, Ramkinkar Baij, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, Paritosh Sen, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharjee and new generation artists like Samir Roy, Chandra Bhattacharya, Tarun Roy and others.

The Museum presently has in its possession about 500 artworks. The collection is, arguably, the most important body of Modern Bengal Art.

Trained young curators Debdutta Gupta and Nilanjan Banerjee are involved in curating the Museum. The climate-controlled storage spaces associated with the Museum are state-of-the-art.

The Museum has galleries, named after prominent donors, like the Surrendra Paul Gallery, Emami Gallery, Purna Chandra Paul Gallery, Saroj-Jyoti Poddar Gallery and Prabhat Chandra Sen Gallery.