[7] Brother Joseph McNally, the founder of Lasalle College of the Arts, was known for his outstanding educational and artistic contributions in Singapore, which he made his home in 1946.

As an integrated arts college, the first cohort had a strength of 27 students who were offered diplomas in Painting, Ceramics, Sculpture, and Music.

[9] In 1993,[10] McNally's effort in securing resources finally paid off when Singapore Airlines contributed S$15 million to enhance campus facilities.

Other financial contributors to the college include the Khoo, Lee, Shaw and Hong Leong Foundations, and Airbus Industries.

[citation needed] Following the government's plans to rejuvenate Singapore's art space, Lasalle began receiving financial support from the Ministry of Education.

At Lasalle's 10th anniversary celebration in 1995, then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong remarked that Lasalle played an important role in developing artists and their audience in Singapore, and announced that the Singapore government would be extending financial assistance to the college by providing an estimated sum of $4 million in grants.

[12] The college also started offering degrees, designed and developed in Singapore, to support the local and regional creative industries.

Its focus is on Asian modern and contemporary art, where students are able to investigate recently emerged artists and movements within the geographical domain, and undertake research.

[11] In 2012, Lasalle established a partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London, to introduce 14 publicly-funded undergraduate arts degree programmes.

The Winstedt Campus opened in 2013, giving the college an additional 5,000 square metres of studio and workshop space.

The campus was designed for students involved in studio-based modules, such as the visual arts, to develop and complete their semester projects.

Students collaborate with other programmes, such as Music, Fashion, Film, Animation, Technical and Production Management, Fine Arts, and Lasalle's Media Lab.

Lasalle students, from Diploma, BA(Hons), and postgraduate programmes may also apply for externally sponsored scholarships.

In February 2016, two items that were part of the group show Fault-lines: Disparate and desperate intimacies were removed from artist Loo Zihan's installation "Queer objects: An archive for the future".

The ICA Singapore, curator and artist emphasised that the decision was taken to make the exhibition accessible to all, including students of the Lasalle College of the Arts, half of whom are under 18 years old.