The museum was founded on November 30, 1978. The first permanent exhibition was opened on November 1, 1987 in a renovated historic mansion, the house of the merchant Groshikov. Nowadays the museum is a research center and educational center of the region in the field of traditional culture. Art culture of several folk traditions of the region in the south-east of Belarus is presented here. 

The museum has a high potential as a tourist destination. At the end of 1980 it was included in the different tourist routes. Since 2004 it is included in the tourist project "Golden Ring of Gomel Region". Vetka Museum of Old Believer Faith and Belarusian Traditions named after F. Shklyarov was repeatedly the winner of tourist contest "Learn Belarus" in the nomination "Best Museum of the Year".

The museum has a unique collection of Old Believers' icons, manuscripts and early printed books of the XVI-XIX centuries, weaving and archeology collections. There are departments of restoration and revival of handicraft in the museum. 

The main directions of research in the museum are expeditionary work, research and systematization, as well as participation in conferences, seminars, publication of scientific works and articles of the museum staff.
All collections of the are exhibited. There are no equals to Vetka Museum today because of its representation of the Old Believer culture. The museum has about half a thousand of Old Believer icons, more than a hundred manuscripts of the XVI-XIX centuries, 590 old books (among them there are works of Ivan Fedorov, Pyotr Mstislavets, works of Belarusian, Ukrainian and Moscow printing houses of the XVI-XVIII centuries).

On september 26, 2008 a new branch of the museum was opened in Gomel in a renovated house on the territory of the establishment "Gomel Palace and Park Ensemble". 4 halls there are united by the theme of Tradition. The original concept include several sections: "Masterpiece", "Man of the tradition", "The thing as the text in the spiritual culture", "Crafts", and all of them can be changed by temporary exhibitions.