The association was founded on September 19, 1994 under the title "Friends of Art in the Museum Wiesbaden" on the initiative of Felicitas Reusch. The entrepreneur Dr. Gerd Eckelmann took over the chairmanship.

The aims of the Friends of the Museum Wiesbaden are to promote exhibitions as well as the cultural education of children and young people in the museum. In 2016, the Friends of the Museum Wiesbaden supported the museum's educational program with 40,000 euros. The association makes substantial financial contributions to the acquisition of works of art, arranges partners and sponsors who accompany the special exhibitions in the museum, e.g. through lectures, artist encounters or concerts, and subsidizes the publication of catalogs.

With almost 1,300 members and a financial volume of 251,000 euros (2016), the Friends of the Museum Wiesbaden are an influential cultural-political lobby for the museum. In 2014, the name was changed to Friends of the Museum Wiesbaden to express the fact that the natural history department should also be supported alongside the art.