Its mission, according to the founding charter, was “to nurture manpower skillful in the arts for the artistic industry and to train educational staff for applied arts teaching and for teaching drawing at secondary schools.” It was divided into a three-year general education school and follow-up three- to five-year vocational and special schools with the disciplines of architecture, sculpture, drawing, painting, film & TV graphics, metal working, wood carving, floral painting and textiles.
Among the first graduates were Jan Preisler, Stanislav Sucharda, Josef Mařatka, Vojtěch Preissig, František Kobliha, Bohumil Kafka, Miloš Slovák and Julius Mařák.
In 1918, after the creation of Czechoslovakia, UPŠ failed to obtain the “High School of Decorative Arts” status it was aiming for, but nevertheless it strengthened its autonomy.
From 1920 it was led by an elected rector and new artistic personalities joined the faculty staff - Pavel Janák, František Kysela, Jaroslav Horejc, Vratislav Hugo Brunner and Helena Johnová and the art historians Antonín Matějček, Václav Vilém Štech and Jaromír Pečírka.
In 1925, the school represented Czechoslovakia at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris, where it received both official recognition and criticism from the perspective of the European avant-garde.
Nevertheless, the handicraft disciplines – textiles, glass, metal and ceramics – maintained their quality, and in the fifties celebrated figures joined the faculty – such as Adolf Hoffmeister, Arsén Pohribný and Josef Wagner.
The graduates of the period included Vladimír Janoušek, Věra Janoušková, Hermína Melicharová, Čestmír Kafka, Milan Grygar, Stanislav Kolíbal, Stanislav Libenský, Zdeněk Palcr, Adriena Šimotová, Jiří John, Eva Kmentová, Květa Pacovská, Olbram Zoubek, Jan Hladík, Jenny Hladíková, Vladimír Kopecký, Jiří Balcar and René Roubíček.
Contemporary alumni and tutors include the architects Eva Jiřičná, Jan Kaplický and Tomáš Pilař, the designers Bořek Šípek and Dominika Nell Applová, the fine artists Adriena Šimotová, Jan Kubíček, David Černý, Kurt Gebauer, Jiří Černický, Martin Mainer, Karel Gott, Václav Cigler and Jaroslav Róna, the graphic designers Zdeněk Ziegler and Klára Kvízová, the sculptors Karen LaMonte, and Michal Trpák, the typographer František Štorm, the film animators Jiří Barta, Pavel Koutský and Michaela Pavlátová and the theorists Josef Hlaváček and Jan Tomeš.
The school building was erected in 1882-1885 according to plans by František Schmoranz Jr. and Jan Machytka inspired directly by the art academies in Paris and Vienna.