The square is located in the Central District of St. Petersburg between E Inzhenernaya and Italyanskaya streets. The ensemble of the square, consisting of the buildings of the Mikhailovsky Palace (now it houses the State Russian Museum), the Mikhailovsky Theatere (the former Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after M.P. Musorgsky), the house of Golenishchev-Kutuzov, the Musical Comedy Theater, Russian Museum of Ethnography, the Great  Philharmonic Hallnamed after D. D. Shostakovich and the hotel "Europe",  which was created by the famous architect Carl Rossi in the first half of the XIX century. In the small park on the square in 1957, a monument to A.S. Pushkin was erected by the sculptor M.K. Anikushin and the architect V. A. Petrov.

The Art Square, rectangular in plan, was built up with buildings, the facades of which were designed by the architect K.I. Rossi in an ensemble with the Mikhailovsky Palace and Mikhailovsky Street