辽宁美术馆始建于20世纪50年代，展厅面积近千平方米，为辽宁省文联主管。建馆初期以展览为主，经常举办一些百幅左右的中小型展览。1966年“文化大革命”开始，辽宁美术馆终止了活动。

    1978年，辽宁美术馆重新组建，馆长由王冠担任，机构设置为：办公室、展览部、创作部。馆址设在辽宁工业展览馆，总面积为4,000多平方米。新组建的辽宁美术馆还负有美术创作和研究任务。从80年代初，辽宁美术馆开始走上正规的道路。进入90年代，画家宋雨桂先后担任辽宁美术馆第一副馆长、馆长。馆内下设办公室、展览部、收藏部、画廊，近年又增设了展厅管理部、保卫部。美术馆的发展方向进一步得到明确。

    20多年来，美术馆十分重视收藏工作，通过收购、接受捐赠、专题征集等方式，逐步充实和积累，有明清书画、近现代中国画、近现代书法、油画、水彩画、版画、雕塑等。其中不乏艺术珍品，为举办多样的陈列和展览研究工作打下了良好的基础。同时库房管理、艺术档案工作也逐步实现条理化、规范化。

    多年来，各类短期美术作品展览十分活跃，平均每年举办省内个人画展、联展和集体展以及国内外艺术交流展20余个，全国第一届书法篆刻展、第七届全国美术作品展，以及潘天寿、张仃、吴冠中、华君武、力群等著名艺术家都先后在辽宁美术馆举办过展览。

    辽宁美术馆还曾多次邀请国外著名的艺术家来馆举办展览，并组织座谈会、报告会，开展艺术交流活动。如日本东山魁夷绘画展、平山郁夫画展、柳田泰云书法展、非洲塞内加尔现代艺术展、欧洲古代版画展、英国水彩画展、美国城乡生活油画展、意大利文艺复兴时期展等。

    为了密切美术馆与艺术家的联系，促进艺术创作的繁荣，辽宁美术馆从2001年开始聘请省内多名在各类艺术活动中有突出成就和影响的画家、书法家、雕塑家、陶艺家、鉴赏家为辽宁美术馆特聘馆员。

    从2000年至2002年，辽宁美术馆连续举办了三届东北艺术品博览会，都取得了良好的经济效益和社会效益。东北艺术品博览会，作为艺术市场的龙头，影响至整个东北地区，甚至全国和海外。

Liao Ning Art Museum

Liaoning Art Museun was established in 1950s. The area of the exhibition halls is approximately 1,000 square meters. It was under the supervision of Liaoning Federation of Literary and Art Circles . In the early days the main task of the museum is to exhibit its collections. It often held small exhibitions that covered about 100 pieces of works. In 1966, when the Culture Revolution broke out, the activities of the museum were ceased.

The reorganization of Liaoning Art Museum was implemented in 1978, Wang Guan was appointed as the director of the museum. It contains these sections: office 、exhibition department and creation department. Today it is located at Liaoning Industrial Exhibition Hall, covering more than 4,000 square meters. The museum was tasked to create art works and conduct research. Since 1980s, Liaoning Art Museum had got on to its normal orbit. In 1990s, the painter Song Yugui was appointed as first vice director, then director. Aside from office 、exhibition department 、collection department and gallery, it added exhibition management department and security department. The orientation of the museum became clear gradually.

In these years, the museum paid much attention to collecting. Through purchasing, accepting donation and special collecting , the museum has got hundreds of collections which cover paintings and calligraphies of Ming and Qing ynasties 、modern traditional Chinese paintings , modern calligraphies, oil paintings, watercolor paintings, prints, sculptures etc., including some of invaluable artworks which is very useful for exhibitions and researching. Meanwhile the management of storage and archiving got into their standardization.

The museum actively held many temporary exhibitions these years, averagely more than 20 exhibitions per year. The exhibitions include solo exhibition, group exhibitions and international exchange exhibitions, including the First National calligraphy and Seal Cutting exhibition and the 7th National Art Exhibition. A lot of solo exhibtions are also held, including that of Wu Guangzhong, Pan Tianshou and Hua Junwu, etc..

The museum invited many foreign famous artists to hold exhibitions and conducted forums and art communication activities with them. For example, HIGASHIYAMAKAII Painting Exhibition 、HIRAYAMAIKUO Painting Exhibition 、YANAGIDATAIUN Calligraphy Exhibition 、African Senegal Modern Art Exhibition, European Ancient Print Exhibition, Britain Watercolor Exhibition, American Countryside Living Oil Painting Exhibition, Italy Renaissance Exhibition and so on.

In order to increase contact with artists and promote art creation, Liaoning Art Museum has invited many famous artists who have great achivement and being influential in the art field as its consultants since 2001, for instance, Yan Shaoxiang, Wang Hongli and so on.

From 2000 to 2002, Liaoning Art Museum held three Dong Bei Art Expositions successively, which all had good economic benefits and social effect. As the lead of the art market, the Exposition has an effect on the whole area of Northeast China even on the abroad.