The article studies the ideas and practices involved in implementing an art collection in university studies, focusing on a plaster cast collection. The history of museums began in Estonia with the reopening of the University of Tartu (1802) and, since then, collections have played an important role in teaching. This article concentrates on the features of the Enlightenment in Estonia in the context of university education. The University of Tartu was located on the periphery of Europe: on the one hand it was on the fringes of the Russian Empire and on the other hand in the sphere of German culture. Nevertheless, the university collections proved to be varied and were integrated into lectures and seminars, which was an innovative idea in Estonian education.