The school is named for botanist Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt, and is part of the Amsterdam University of the Arts (AHK).

It is the only AHK-program without entrance examination, with students coming from all over Western Europe.

The academy was started in 1976 in Leiden, in a former elementary school building on the Van den Brandelerkade.

In the 1980s it moved to the Pesthuis in Leiden, a monumental building from 1661 which now belongs to Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

In the early years of the program, the Masters in Museum Studies was directed by Paul Berghuis.