Using the language of contemporary art, the "Nothing Is What It Seems" exhibition held in Tyumen showed the viewers what reality can be like beyond our conventional perceptions. For the duration of the exhibition, the fourth floor of the Slovtsov Museum Complex was converted into an art laboratory for exploring modern mythologies. More than 30 artists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tyumen, Nizhny Tagil, and other regions of Russia illustrated current myths in their works of art.

The project also prominently featured works of art by local artists which they used to depict local myths. Eight artists from Tyumen, pre-selected in the course of portfolio reviews, presented their individual and collective projects, from personal pieces of art to the so-called total installations.

2019 saw an educational program being held in collaboration with the SAS School of Advanced Studies, a new research and education division of Tyumen State University. Eight lectures taught by major Russian and international keepers of contemporary humanitarian knowledge placed the Biennale’s special project and its Tyumen viewers in the context of relevant trends associated with the reconceptualization of the reality around us.

In 2021, the residents of Tyumen and Tobolsk were able to enjoy an open lecture given by Kendal Henry, one of the world's leading experts on socially engaged art and public art. An additional 407 people joined the event online.

The Tyumen project made use of art mediation as an innovative way of presenting the Urals Biennale’s famous exhibition to the viewers. The mediation program’s curator delivered two two-day mediator training seminars in Tyumen. The end result included mediation tours by the museum’s staff members and by SAS students, held throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Under the Art Residence program, artists have been creating projects inspired by the history of a particular place or a partnering company, or by the local community. Tobolsk issued an invitation to an anonymous artist known under the pseudonym of Krasil Makar, a participant of many international exhibitions and one of the first residents of the Garage museum’s art workshops in Moscow, to take part in the program. Krasil Makar follows the traditions of the Ural-Siberian painting style that was lost at the beginning of the previous century. In 2019, Tobolsk hosted an exhibition titled Krasil Makar: An Artist's Story As Told by Himself, which was attended by 987 visitors. 156 people took part in a public program.

As part of the 2021 public program, Kendal Henry, a New York-based curator and artist, hosted a collaborative lab. The workshop was attended by 13 representatives of the Tobolsk art community and three artists from Tyumen. The laboratory resulted in an exhibition called "16 Minutes" and a "House of Hassle" installation put on display at the 19th-20th century building of the "Ensemble of Wine Cellars". A total of 39 visitors turned up to attend the pop-up exhibition: they made their way through the main hall of the exhibition featuring an installation by Ekaterina Sokolovskaya to the "House of Hassle" installation by Tyumen artists and the "16 Minutes" pop-up exhibition and store.