The department of the Arts of Africa and the Americas is dedicated to the immense creativity of Native peoples across the world, from prehistory to the present. The collection has grown significantly since the department was founded over thirty years ago and now numbers more than 3,000 objects, including masterworks of sculpture, ceramics, metalsmithing, painting, basketry, and bead-, shell-, and quillwork, reflecting the diversity of these regions and cultures.

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The MIA's collection of Asian art represents 17 Asian cultures spanning nearly 5,000 years. The Department of Asian Arts has benefited greatly from generous gifts from knowledgeable collectors. Augustus L. Searle, Alfred F. Pillsbury, Richard P. Gale, Louis W. Hill, Jr., and Ruth and Bruce Dayton have donated specialized collections of international reputation, including ancient Chinese bronzes, ancient and post-Sung jade, Chinese monochrome ceramics, Ukiyo-e paintings, Japanese prints, and classical Chinese furniture. In addition, highly regarded specialized collections of Ch’ing dynasty silk textiles, Miao textiles, and surimono prints have been built over the years.

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In 2008 the MIA launched an initiative to focus on the art of our times. Through its new Department of Contemporary Art, the museum will bring a fresh dynamism to its galleries by collecting and exhibiting works by living artists. This initiative emphasizes the relationships among historical art, diverse cultures, and contemporary art-making.

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Originally established to focus on furniture, metalwork, ceramics, and glass, the department today is the largest and most diverse in the museum, with more than 10,000 works in all media from America and Europe, from the Middle Ages to the present.

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The MIA’s internationally acclaimed collection of paintings contains nearly 900 European and American works from the 14th century to the present. It offers a comprehensive survey of both celebrated schools and individual artists and is notable for its concentration of masterworks.

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Begun in 1973, the MIA’s collection of photographs spans the history of photography from the 1860s to the present. Representing more than 800 photographers and 11,500 works of art, the collection consists primarily of 20th-century American work, with particular depth in the genres of documentary, photojournalism, and pictorialism

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Established in 1916 when founding trustee Herschel V. Jones donated a collection of 5,000 prints, the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is responsible for the care, exhibition, and acquisition of works of art on paper. These include woodcuts, engravings, etchings, lithographs, screenprints, drawings, watercolors, pastels, monotypes, multiples, artists' books, and rare books. Ranging from early 14th-century illuminated manuscripts to contemporary works on paper, the museum’s permanent collection of prints and drawings is encyclopedic in scope and comprehensive in graphic media.

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The Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP) is an artist-managed curatorial department of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts devoted to the exhibition of works by artists who live in Minnesota.

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The MIA adheres to Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) guidelines on deaccessioning objects. Accessioning/deaccessioning are terms used to describe the process of objects entering or leaving a museum collection.

The MIA does not currently have any artworks to be deaccessioned.