The permanent collection of the museum totals more than 60,000 works in a wide range of media and includes a survey of Western art from the fifteenth century to the present.

Teachers of K-12 students may benefit from workshops that the museum organizes in collaboration with the Rutgers Graduate School of Education and satisfy mandated professional development requirements.

[4] In addition, the museum offers drawing workshops for all ages, as well as storytelling for preschoolers and day trips for adults who wish to learn more about specific aspects of art.

The earliest paintings in the Zimmerli collection date to the late eighteenth century, when the United States and Rutgers University – then called Queen's College – were in their infancy.

Reflecting America's rich artistic and cultural heritage, the museum showcases examples of portraiture, landscape, still life, narrative art, and abstraction.

In 2011, the Zimmerli restituted a rare Renaissance portrait by Hans Baldung Grien to the heirs of Friedrich and Louise Gutmann who had been murdered by Nazis in concentration camps.

All media are represented, including paintings on canvas and panel, sculpture, assemblage, decorative objects, installations, works on paper, photography, video, artists’ books and self-published texts called "samizdat".

The Dodge Collection includes work by Russian painter Irina Nakhova, who in 2015 was selected as the first woman to represent Russia with a solo show of her artwork in its pavilion at the Venice Biennale.