The idea of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts was initiated in 1962 by Vittorio Giannini, a leading American Composer and teacher of Composition at Juilliard, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music, who approached then-governor Terry Sanford and enlisted the help of author John Ehle and William Sprott Greene, Jr.[3] and Martha Dulin Muilenburg of Charlotte, North Carolina, to support his dream of an arts conservatory.

A resolution dated December 3, 1966, by the board of trustees and the governor pays tribute to Giannini as the founder of the school, noting that "When it was a dream, he sought a home for it and helped bring it into being.

The gala opening of the Stevens Center featured the school's symphony orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein, with Isaac Stern as soloist and Gregory Peck as the Master of Ceremonies.

Attendees included Agnes de Mille, Cliff Robertson, Governor James Hunt, President and Mrs. Gerald Ford and Lady Bird Johnson.

He assumed the position in July 1990, following Philip R. Nelson, former Dean of music at Yale University, who served as interim chancellor during the 1989–90 school year.

In 1988 he established the Lucia Chase Endowed Fellowship for Dance at the school, in memory of his mother, a co-founder and principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre.

Other capital projects he spearheaded included a new sculpture studio, a new fitness center, and the start of the student commons renovation.

Wade Hobgood, Dean of the College of the Arts at California State University at Long Beach since 1993, was named chancellor in February 2000, assuming the position on July 1, 2000.

[8][9][10] In 2011, the school settled a lawsuit brought forward by an anonymous former employee after negligently hiring a known sexual predator to its campus police department.

Lindsay Bierman, former editor of Southern Living magazine, served as chancellor from 2014 to 2019, overseeing the implementation of a new strategic plan, widespread campus renovations, and the launch of the largest fundraising campaign in school history.

[12] The following year, Soderlund and six other dance alumni sued the school and multiple former administrators for sexual abuses perpetrated by faculty.

In a subsequent refiling, 32 additional alumni joined the complaint, alleging various forms of sexual, physical and verbal abuse by faculty.

[13] Stephen Shipps, who worked as a violin instructor at UNCSA from 1980 to 1989 (and was also a defendant in the high school alumni lawsuit), was sentenced to five years in prison on April 14, 2022, for trafficking an underaged girl for the purpose of having sex with her back in 2002.

Once every four years, UNCSA produces an all-school musical – a Broadway-style production involving all five arts schools of the conservatory.

Past all-school musicals have included Brigadoon, Oklahoma!, Kiss Me, Kate, Canterbury Tales, and Guys and Dolls[15] with the most recent one being Leonard Bernstein's Mass.

[16] West Side Story was performed at UNCSA's Stevens Center from May 3–13, 2007, and then went on tour to Chicago's Ravinia Festival[17] on June 8, 2007.

[25] The premiere athletic event from the early 1970s was an annual touch-football game between a UNCSA team versus one from a Wake Forest University fraternity.