[5] The gallery houses a collection of 1,683 works of art donated by Mykolas Žilinskas to the city of Kaunas between 1974 and 1988.

As Žilinskas continued to donate new works, a new bigger gallery building was deemed necessary, which subsequently opened on 30 June 1989.

The new gallery was opened in Independence Square (architects Eugenijus Miliūnas, Kęstutis Kisielius, Saulius Juškys).

Three rooms of the gallery are reserved for temporary exhibitions of the works of Lithuanian and foreign artists.

The gallery has a Contemporary Art Information Centre, a lecture theatre, the "Menapilis" cinema and a children's aesthetic education studio, and an exhibition "Museum for the Blind" for visually impaired visitors.