A beautiful building is located in the historic center of Petropavlovsk, 314 Strelkovaya deviziya Street 83. It is added to the list of landmarks which are undertaken by state protection. Merchant House of Yuzefovich was built in 1909 by order of one of the richest people at that time - a merchant and lumberman A.G.Yuzefovich. There was a suggestion that the designer of house was a famous and talented A. Zenkov, the author of many famous architectural constructions in Almaty. Yuzefovich House is a unique example of wooden architecture. Elements of the classical "modern" style were used in the decoration of the facade. It is an example of the historical layout of the provincial merchant town in the early twentieth century, which expressed an integrated development of residential buildings and an architectural heritage of the city.
House of Yuzefovich was specially created as a cultural location. This fact does not escape from attention of authorities and citizens of the city, and about twenty-five years the Museum of Fine Arts was in the building.
North Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Fine Arts was opened in Petropavlovsk, 1989. The department of fine arts of the local historical museum was such a basis for opening it.
Paintings, drawings, sculptures by Kazakh artists and transmitted art gallery of Almaty of the1960s were the first collection of the museum. Then, local artists constantly update the collection through the purchase of paintings.
A significant complement of the collection was in 1985, when it was announced to open an independent museum. Most of fine arts were transferred from the Union production of artistic works named after Vuchetic (Moscow), the Union of Artists of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Culture Directorate of exhibitions of the Kazakh SSR. A certain part of the collection was purchased and brought as a gift to the future museum.
The museum opened doors in 1989. It was immediately placed in an architectural monument (1982) of Yuzefovich House. The location of exposition area is 394.2 square meters. Today, museum's collection contains more than 7,000 exhibits, and most of them are permanently exhibited in the halls of the museum.
The main part of the collection is a graphics section, which is represented by works of famous artists - Vladimir Faborsky, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Kukryniksov, Maya Miturich-Khlebnikov, Georgi Nyssko, Michail Maiofis, Georgi Poplavsky, Domitsele Tarabildene, Rafik Khachatryan, Grigori Khanzhian, Luis Orteg, Herluf Bidstrup.
Separate exposition presents works of Kazakhstan artists as a Valentina Antoshenko-Olenev, Eugene Sidorkin, Konstantin Baranov, Makum Kisamedinov, Temirkhan Ordabekov, Pavel Rechensky, Vasily Timofeev, Arsen Beysembinov.
Literary department was opened in 1992, which was based on authentic copies of manuscripts, writers’ works, personal belongings, photographs, and letters. Department has been studying works of local writers such as Magzhan Zhumabaev, Peotr Yershov, Ivan Shukhov, Sabit Mukanov, Gabit Musrepov. The collection of the literary department has about 2,600 exhibits.
The collection of decorative art section has Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh embroidery, Ural trays, samovars, icons, ceramics and objects of ethnography. The cult section has wooden icons, folding, small icons, crosses, church utensils and clothes. There is a collection of works of children's creativity.
Sculpture section presents works of Oleg Komov, Nicholai Nikoghosian, Julia Segal, Serenzhaba Baldano, Michail Rapoport, Alexandr Eller.
Section of painting occupies a central place in the museum. The main exhibits are works of Kazakh masters such as Abilhan Kasteev, Nicholay Khludov, Aubakir Ismailov, Leonid Leontiev, Viktor Krylov, Jantay Shardenov, Ivan Stadnichuk and others.
The North Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Fine Arts is unique. It is not surprising that during 25 years of existence, it has become a kind of meeting center for creative and intelligence area. Today, the fund has a huge number of unique expositions, and regularly updated collection always attracts attention of visitors.
Syrymbet Historical-Ethnographic Museum named after Sh.Ualikhanov is located in Syrymbet village, Aiyrtau distict. The museum complex includes a museum of Sh.Ualikhanov. The total area is 1663 square meters. It was an eminent ancestral building of the scientist. It is situated from 4 km southeast of Syrymbet village, and area is more than 4030 square meters.
The literary-memorial house-museum of classics of the Kazakh literature, poet and public figure, academician Sabit Mukanov is located in the Sabit village, Zhambyl region.