M Shed is home to displays of 3,000 artefacts and stories, showing Bristol's role in the slave trade and items on transport, people, and the arts.

Normally moored in front of the museum is a collection of historic vessels, which include a 1934 fireboat (the Fire-float Pyronaut), and two tugboats (Mayflower, the world's oldest surviving steam tug, and John King, a 1935 diesel tug) and the replica caravel The Matthew, the ship that crossed the Atlantic with John Cabot in 1497.

Bristol Harbour Railway offers train rides along the quayside on selected weekends, using restored steam locomotives and rolling stock.

[7][8] In June 2021, the defaced statue of slave trader Edward Colston, toppled in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests in 2020, went on display at M Shed to "start a city-wide conversation about its future".

Among the 3,000 exhibits of material on display are models of Nick Park's Oscar-winning animated duo Wallace and Gromit, a 10 m (33 ft) long mural by local graffiti artists, and pink spray painted record decks (1980) courtesy of Massive Attack,[13] the trip hop trio from Bristol.

A centrepiece of the galleries is a huge mural entitled Window on Bristol, painted by local artists Andy Council and Luke Palmer.