Masuria does not only boast of its natural beauty, it is also a place of a rich cultural heritage and modern cultural life. This can be seen from the facts listed below.
There was the male choir "Singers Circle of the Lyck Grammar School of 1830".
In 1887 a public library was established in the village of Rosengarten.
Since 1909 there was a travelling district library in the town of Sensburg.
A youth organization existed in the village of Muschaken.
There was an amateur dramatic group, a string orchestra, a string quartet, a group of lute players, a group of mouth organ players and a vocal choir at the Bethesda charity sanatorium of Angerburg.
The Borderland Museum came into existence on the area of the former synagog of Neidenburg which had been vandalized at the Crystal night of 9th/10th November 1938. Above all this museum exhibits prehistoric and ancient artifacts from the district of Neidenburg.
For some decades there was the Teatr Poezji "Meluzyna" under the direction of Stanislaw Miedziewski in the town of Marggrabowa. Later, the Theatre AGD started to be much in evidence. Its performances achieved numerous successes at theatre contests and theatre festivals. AGD established the meetings of amateur theatres (SZTAMA) which have taken place in Marggrabowa since 1979.
There is the choir La Presto at the school complex No 2 in Ortelsburg.
The ensemble and the choir "New Situation" exist in Soldau.
The school complex of mechanics and electrotechnics in Lyck kept a school choir, a mandolin group, a group of vocal music and recitation as well as an orchestra for some years.
Since 1994 there has been the amateur theatre "Josef Wegrzyn" in Lyck, which is a crowd puller to the region. Its reputation is known up to capital city of Warsaw. There is also the so-called "30 Minutes Theatre".
Furthermore, the Masurian cabaret summer "Mulatka", the Masurian meeting of choires, the festival of children's songs "Golden Note" and the international festival of guitar music take place as regular events in Lyck.
Lyck is also home to rock bands, the choirs "Pojezierske" and "Cautilena" and two art galleries.
There is the jazz club Galeria in Lötzen.
The ballad group "Po drozde" (On the Way) from Marggrabowa sings poems written by Stachura.
Groups of dance, theatre, bridge and chess, a children's orchestra, a plastic studio and a music room work under the roof of the municipal cultural centre of Soldau.
The event "The month of June along with poetry" takes place in Marggrabowa. The cultural centre of Marggrabowa hosts the event "Just Marggrabowa" (in Polish: "Przystanek Olecko") which offers relaxation, sport, ecology, concerts, performings, happenings and workshops. Since 1996 young musicians from all parts of Poland have met in Marggrabowa to organize the "Music Festival of
the Young People of the North - Fiesta Borealis" in this place. Concerts are given, of which the crowd pullers take place in the open-air theatre at Lake Oletzko.
Sensburg offers a rich cultural life in the summer, too. There is the cabaret festival Kabareton (Masurian cabaret night) in mid-July as well as a country picknick festival in late July at which concerts with international guests participating ring out in an amphitheatre at Lake Schoss. Moreover, Sensburg hosts a festival of the culture of the former Polish Eastern territories (Festival Kultury Kresowij) in the second decade of August.
Fort Boyen in Lötzen is home to a shanties festival in the first half of July, and there is also a festival of hiking songs. A series of organ recitals "Gizyckie Koncerty Organowe" is performed in the evangelical church, which has an organ of 27 registers.
Every year there is a concert on Valentin's Day in Soldau. In May a dance marathon and the Warmian-Masurian folklore days take place.
In June there is a beauty contest in which "Miss Soldau Land" is elected, and from June to August residents and visitors can listen to open air concerts. On 14th August they celebrate the birthday of the town of Soldau. In November they elect the "Little Miss Soldau" and in December they vote to choose the hit of children's songs.
In Nikolaiken there is a Masurian Centre (Centrum Mazurskie) and a museum of the Polish Reformation, and a shanty festival is celebrated in the first week of August.
A Masurian farm yard of the year 1810 stands in Krzyzewen and a Masurian wooden house in Dorschen. The Masurian museum in Schäferei exhibits typical Masurian houses featuring historical furnishings. Open air concerts take place there, too. A private museum about the everyday life of the Masurian country population prior to World War II is situated in Zondern. A collection of folk art displayed by Walentina and Maria Dermacka in Peitschendorf offers a glimpse of everyday life in a village.
Up to the end of World War II a museum of local history and culture existed in Johannisburg. Today the town hall of Johannisburg accommodates a museum of the history and culture of the Johannisburg Land (Muzeum Ziemi Piskie) with an exhibition of animals and plants of the Johannisburg Heath.
There is also a museum of local history and culture (Muzeum Ziemi Mragowskiej) in the old town hall of Sensburg, and there is another museum in the Crusaders' Castle of Rhein.
The forester's house of Kleinort accommodates a museum in honour of the writer Ernst Wiechert.
The museum of people's culture (Muzeum Kultury Ludowej) in Angerburg exhibits carved articles, porcelain and tapestry carpets.
In Soldau there is a promoters' society of the Soldau Land, the knights' brotherhood of Santa Catherine and a craftsmen's guild.
In 1991 a Culture Club of the Germans called "Homeland" was set up in Ortelsburg, and there are more German societies, such as:
- the German Society "Lake Mauer" Town and Country of Angerburg in Angerburg,
- the Goldap Society of the German Minority in Goldap,
- the Johannisburg German Group "Rösch" for Town and Country in Johannisburg,
- the German Social-Cultural Club in Lötzen,
- the Society of the German Minority "Masuria" in Lyck,
- the Neidenburg Society of the German Minority in Neidenburg,
- the Treuburg Society of the German Minority in Marggrabowa and
- the German Society "Bear Paw" in Sensburg.
The seat of the central managing committee of the Ukrainian Social-Cultural Society and of the Union of the Ukrainians in Poland is in Benkheim. There are also Ukrainian artists' groups who cherish their traditional folk culture.
There is a public municipal library in Dubeningken. The residents of Soldau can also make use of a public library and a Pedagogic Library as well. The cinema Apollo adds to the cultural life in this town.