The museum focuses on art and history of the regions of Oldambt and Westerwolde in the east of the province of Groningen.

In the late 1990s, the museum started to exhibit artworks of artist collective De Ploeg and magic realist painter Lodewijk Bruckman.

Museum de Oude Wolden is located at the Hoofdweg[1] in the village Bellingwolde in the municipality Bellingwedde in the east of the province Groningen near the Dutch–German border.

[9] Streekmuseum de Oude Wolden (Regional Museum the Old Wolds) was opened on 10 August 1973 by the mayor of Bellingwedde Jurjen Jan Hoeksema.

[2][10] In the late 1960s, the province of Groningen requested the national government for subsidy to open a new museum in Bellingwolde.

The subsidy was not granted, but the state paid indirectly for the restoration of the museum building via a subsidized employment project.

[2] In 1976, the museum exhibited primarily historical objects from the regions of Oldambt and Westerwolde, such as agricultural machines, traditional costumes, and archaeological and geological finds.

[11] After the expansion in 1977, the museum had enough space to hold temporary exhibitions, group the historical objects thematically, and display a 19th-century grocery store inventory.

[17][18][19] Since the renovation in 2012, the historical objects and the artworks by De Ploeg are no longer on permanent display,[9] the museum now focuses on art, region, and history with Bruckman's paintings and temporary exhibitions.

[20] The smaller exhibitions are called 24K, which refers to an area around the museum with a radius of 24 kilometers where the artists are from and the supposed 24 carat quality of the artworks.