Timeline of Arts @ Illinois.

The College of Fine and Applied Arts celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 2006.

Since the founding of the University of Illinois in 1867, the visual, performing, and environmental design arts have been an integral part of this institution, playing a distinct role in advancing its mission. Many of the College’s departments started as programs in other colleges, but over the decades the arts at Illinois have grown in size, stature, and notoriety into impressive units that make up a vibrant College — a rich array of disciplines that have come together to shape this campus’s dedication to the arts.

On October 3, 1921, a proposal was made by the University Senate to organize the Department of Architecture, the Division of Landscape Architecture, the School of Music and the Department of Art and Design into a College of Fine Arts. A committee, made up of faculty members, was appointed in 1928 to make recommendations, which were approved by the Senate on February 2, 1930. On March 12, 1931, the Board of Trustees established the college for the "... cultivation of esthetic taste on the part of the student body at large ... and development of general artistic appreciation." The first dean was appointed in 1932.

Today, the College includes the Schools of Architecture, Art and Design, and Music; the Departments of Dance, Landscape Architecture, Theatre, and Urban and Regional Planning; the East St. Louis Action Research Project; the I space Gallery in Chicago; Japan House; the Krannert Art Museum; the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; and Sinfonia da Camera, the University’s resident chamber orchestra. The College offers exhibitions, concerts, performances, lectures, master classes, and conferences in all areas of the performing and visual arts and for the designed and built environment.

The College’s history of educating highly talented students and breaking new ground is indicative of its stature in the constellation of fine arts programs in the country. More broadly defined than most arts colleges, we at Illinois are privileged in our diversity and focused on our excellence.