Nicholas Roerich Museum is a major center for the exhibition of paintings by Nicholas Roerich, and makes available many reproductions of his art and numerous books about his life and work. The Museum is also a cultural center, presenting a broad program of concerts and poetry readings. A major aim of the Museum's activities is to promote awareness of Roerich's ideas about art and culture, as embodied in the Museum's symbol and its motto, Pax Cultura, Peace Through Culture.

Roerich was a Russian artist whose colorful career included archaeological excavations and expeditions to the Far East which inspired his paintings of the Himalayas. His paintings, of which there are thousands around the world, explore the mythic origins, the natural beauty, and the spiritual strivings of humanity and of the world. The Museum displays approximately two hundred of these works, and keeps them permanently on display.  The Museum also keeps in print a number of books by and about Roerich and his life and work, and a substantial stock of postcards and reproductions of his paintings. In addition to these functions, the Museum also maintains an active schedule of cultural activities.