The first museum collection in Nowy Targ was established before the First World War in the building of the Nowy Targ Grammar School under the direction of Professor Kazimierz Baran. The Museum's current collection consists of more than 7,000 exhibits in several departments: ethnographic, art-historical, and natural history. They are made available in temporary exhibitions and a permanent exhibition ntitled 'Nowy Targ at the Turn of the 20th Century, a City That No Longer Exists. This exhibition showcases several craft workshops: shoemaking,weaving, blacksmithing, pottery-making, a carpentry shop, a furrier's workspaceand  a printing press. Many of the exhibits were donated by the inhabitants of Nowy Targ and towns in Podhale, Spis and Orawa.

Since 1994, the Museum has been housed in the Town Hall building, one of the most representative buildings in Nowy Targ. Nowy Targ's Town Hall was first mentioned in the 15th century, but it burned down during the terrible fire of 1601. A well-known description of the town hall from the 18th century is of a grand, wooden building with arcades on pillars covered with shingles. It housed the councillors and the jury court and served as  the seat of the mayor. The first descriptions of a brick town hall in Nowy Targ are from the mid-19th century. In the interwar period, the Town Hall also housed shops and tailors' workshops. The Nowy Targ Town Hall's current shape is due to the efforts of Mayor Jakub Podkanowicz, who rebuilt and modernised it at the turn of the 20th century. Today, the Town Hall is a two-storey building, with its front facing south – towards the Tatra Mountains – in a neo-classical style. It has a glazed tower that features a historic clock. The tower is topped by a spire with a sword, a torture wheel and a palm branch - attributes of St Catherine, the city's patron saint.

Since 2005, a bugle call has been played from the tower five times a day to 'Idzie Jasiek na zbój' by Josef Titz.