From the late 19th century onwards, the Cultural History Collection was intended to document the "cultural epochs of the country from the earlier Middle Ages to the present day". Opened in 1895 as the "Culturhistorisches und Kunstgewerbemuseum" in Neutorgasse in Graz, the collection has been housed in the Museum im Palais in Sackstraße since 2011. It goes back to an initiative of the sculptor Karl Lacher (1850---1908), who was fascinated by the movement that, starting with the first World's Fair (London, 1851), rebelled against the power of industrialisation and the associated signs of decay in craftsmanship. Over the past decades, the collection's identity has developed primarily in the direction of arts and crafts and design. With the management change in 2014, Bettina Habsburg-Lothringen began to reprofile the collection and return to its original mission. The Cultural History Collection comprises around 35,000 objects from fashion, musical instruments, furniture, glass, ceramics, jewelry, and scientific instruments. The history of the Multimedia Collections began in 1958 as the Styrian "Central Archive for Image and Sound Recordings". In 1971 it was renamed the "Bild- und Tonarchiv" (Picture and Sound Archive), and in 2009 it was renamed the "Multimediale Sammlungen" (Multimedia Collections). Originally housed in Bürgergasse and then in Palais Attems, the holdings, which have grown to over 2.5 million objects, were moved to the Joanneum Quarter in 2011. Despite the generally growing museum significance of photographic, audio, and film documents as evidence of contemporary, regional, and technological history, the Multimedia Collections at the Joanneum have not yet been able to position themselves appropriately.

The particular architecture of the Kunsthaus has implications for some aspects of the artistic programme. The two large exhibition spaces (Space01 and Space02) have very different characteristics in terms of their specific suitability for certain forms of art and typologies of exhibitions: the internationally prominent and open Space01 is particularly suitable for large-scale sculptural or architectural interventions. The Kunsthaus owes this distinctive space special attention from its audience as well as from artists. The dark Space02 below allows for a particularly adequate presentation of media works and photography.

In keeping with the nature of the building, the logic of modern art and its history in Graz, the Kunsthaus Graz places a special focus on the use of new media in general and media art in particular.