ENM is an ethnological, cultural and historical museum of Estonians, Estonian minorities and Finno-Ugric nations telling the story through artifacts, antiques and technology. The museum focuses on making collections engaging and accessible for wide audiences. 
The new building was created by Dan Dorell, Lina Ghotmeh and Tsuyoshi Tane on the territory of a former Soviet military airbase; the runway is now symbolic for the nation to take off from its troubled past and head into the future. There are two permanent interactive exhibitions combining science and art. The exhibition "Encounters" looks into the past, telling it through people's experiences, lives and emotions; the exhibition of Finno-Ugric peoples, "The Echo of the Urals" is about the cultural space in Northern Eurasia. The museum manages to speak about the harsh past of the country without political bias.