On November 23, 1946, president Miguel Alemán Valdés proposed the creation of the INBA, and it was formally opened on 1 January 1947, as a branch of the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP).

The first head of the INBA was Carlos Chávez, who created a new orchestra for the Conservatory, the current Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional.

[citation needed] One of the important services the institute provides for the nation is to protect, along with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, monuments and buildings deemed cultural patrimony.

[1] The valuation of aesthetic value is left to the Comisión Nacional de Zonas y Monumentos Artísticos (National Commission of Artistic Zones and Monuments).

[1] Edifices deemed worthy by the commission are catalogued in the Registro Público de Monumentos y Zonas Artísticos (Public Register of Artistic Monuments and Zones).