Until the end of 2019, the campus was located in Rozelle,[1] Sydney and housed within Callan Park in the Kirkbride complex, a cluster of sandstone buildings designed by James Barnet, the government architect, in the late 19th century.

SCA moved to the main Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney in 2020 and now occupies a substantial portion of the Old Teachers' College.

The Visual Arts students were based in a Campus at Smith and Mansfield Streets Balmain.

Often referred to as the "artist's art school", it has had a long tradition of nurturing diversity of practice and opinion, with a distinguished list of teachers and alumni.

On 21 June 2016 the University of Sydney announced that the school would be merged with UNSW Art & Design, a plan that was later abandoned.