The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) is Tasmania's leading conservation and cultural organization. It is a combined museum, art gallery, and herbarium that protects physical evidence of Tasmania's natural and cultural heritage, as well as the cultural identity of Tasmanians.

TMAG is the second-oldest museum in Australia. It has its origins in the collections of the Royal scientific society of Australia, founded in 1843. The museum's first permanent home opened on the corner of Argyle and Macquarie streets in 1863, but gradually expanded and now occupies the entire city block. These sites are among the most historically significant places in Australia. There the Tasmania's oldest surviving public building, the 1808-1810 store; private Secretary's cottage, built about 1815, originally adjacent to the old government house, and Tasmania's first Federal building, the 1902 customs house.

The most interesting part of the Tasmanian Colonial Decorative Arts Department is the collection of colonial decorative art. The colony grew rapidly and became increasingly prosperous in the first half of the nineteenth century. The island's rich arts and crafts heritage is the result of the skilled labor of prisoners and the work of artisan immigrants from the free settlers attracted by the prosperity of the region. In some areas, such as furniture-making, convicts and free residents made significant contributions; in others, such as blacksmithing, almost all known examples made mainly by prisoners.

Colonialism hindered industrialization. So Tasmanian decorative arts have been dominating by small workshops that produced goods for the local market for most of the nineteenth century. British influence has remained dominant also for most of the twentieth century. This movement encouraged originality and individual expression in design, and many masters of applied art used their immediate environment for inspiration, including local plants and animals in their designs.

The museum holds many of Tasmania's public collections: almost 800,000 different items: fossils, fine art, and other artifacts. The institution is focused on representing the essence of the values of society. Its meetings are the main reference point for residents, which gives an idea of what it means to be a Tasmanian, and an understanding of their place in the global community.