John Lockwood Kipling was appointed as the first principal of the institution,[3][4] which is now active as National College of Arts in Lahore.

In 1951 it was first established as Government School of Art and craft at Shimla,[5] the capital of Punjab and subsequently Govt.

Government College of Art, Chandigarh the Institution is recognised as Mayo School's post-colonial cousins in India.

[5][8] Dhanraj Bhagat Sculpture park in the College campus,[9][10] was set up on 15 October 2010, that became an open-air workshop for the students to work in open classroom and an option to recover from the constraint of time and space of regular college routine, as a result, it came up with a permanent exhibition of artworks in the institution.

[11] S L Prashar Art Gallery was inaugurated on 16 June 2012, and the first exhibition with old photographs dating back to 1951 on diamond jubilee of the institution.