文化馆是政府为开展群众文化工作、活跃群众文化生活而设立的事业机构。民国时期已有教化民众的社会教育机关。1949年1月31日北平和平解放后，中国共产党接管并改造了国民党政府在北平的民众教育馆。在党的领导下北京市建立起了自己独特的文化馆制度。

北京市城乡文化馆的建立与发展在1949—1956年期间可分为三个阶段：1949—1953年是文化馆建设的初步探索阶段；1953—1955年北京市各文化馆进入了整顿提高阶段；1955—1956年各文化馆的整顿工作均已基本完成，进入稳定发展阶段。

梳理北京市文化馆的工作，可将其工作任务总结为四点：进行思想教育和时政宣传，组织辅导群众学习文化知识，组织辅导群众业余文艺生活，向群众科普生产生活应知的科学、技术、卫生等知识。

文化馆的活动使群众的文化需求得到满足，它的工作方式为群众提供了参与文化建设的途径，其在深入群众的过程中潜移默化地影响民众投身社会建设，并实现了对群众的政治宣传和思想教育。这个时期在北京市各个文化馆履行职能的过程中也暴露出了一些问题，其中最主要的两点：一是文化馆的人力和物质条件不足；二是文化馆与其他机构的功能有所重叠。尽管存在不足，但在新中国成立初期百废待兴的时代背景下，文化馆作为基层群众文化机构仍然发挥了不可否认的重要作用。

A cultural center is an institution established by the government to carry out the cultural work of the masses and to enliven their cultural life. After the peaceful liberation of Beiping on January 31, 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC) took over and transformed the people's education halls left over from Government of the Republic of China in Beiping. Under the leadership of the CPC, Beijing established its own unique system of cultural centers.

The establishment and development of cultural centers in Beijing during 1949-1956 can be divided into three stages: 1949-1953 was the initial stage of the construction of cultural centers. In 1953, the Ministry of Culture of the Central Government made the Instruction on Rectifying and Strengthening the Work of Cultural Centers and Stations, and 1953-1955 became the stage of rectification of all cultural centers. From 1955 to 1956, the reorganization of cultural centers was basically completed, and they entered the stage of stable development.

The work of Beijing's cultural centers can be summarized in four points: to educate the public on ideology and current affairs, to organize and tutor the public in cultural knowledge, to organize and tutor the public in amateur cultural life, and to popularize to the public the knowledge of science, technology and health that they should know in production and life.

The activities of the cultural centers enabled the cultural needs of the masses to be met. Its way of working provided a way for the masses to participate in cultural construction. Its process of reaching out to the masses implicitly influenced them to join in social construction and achieved political propaganda and ideological education for the masses. During this period, a number of problems were revealed in the performance of the functions of Beijing's cultural centers, the two most important of which were the lack of human and material resources and the overlapping functions of cultural centers and other institutions. Despite the shortcomings, cultural centers played an undeniably important role as grassroots mass cultural institutions in the early years of the People's Republic of China, when all things were still in need of reconstruction.