Guangxi University has a long tradition in art education. When Mr. Ma Junwu served as the first president in 1928, he strongly supported the promotion and implementation of this concept: "truthfulness, goodness, and beauty". He also personally created a large number of poems and writings, which are still engraved in the sculpture garden of the university today. As early as 1936, at the Yan Shan Yuan campus of Guilin, Guangxi University, many famous drama masters such as Jiao Juyin, Ouyang Yuqian, and Ding Xilin were hired as professors to guide students in artistic creation and practical activities, thus forming a precious tradition of emphasizing artistic creation and aesthetic education.

Guangxi University established an Art Education Research Room in 1997, a Department of Art in September 2007, and officially established the School of the Arts on October 31, 2008.

The school currently has five departments: Music, Dance, Fine Arts, Art Design, and Drama and Film Literature. It has one Professional Master's Degree Authorization Point, which includes three directions: Drama and Film Literature, Music, and Design. At present, there are 822 undergraduate and 144 graduate students.

The school took the lead in applying for the project of Ministry of Education. The project “Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture (Cai Diao opera) Inheritance Base” was approved in 2020. "The Campus Theater Creative Art Joint Graduate Education Base" was approved in 2019 as a demonstration project of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR) Graduate Joint Education Base. The majors of Music and Fine Arts have been listed as national first-class undergraduate major development sites, while the majors of Dance and Art Design have been listed as provincial first-class undergraduate major development sites. In the 6^th National University Student Art Exhibition, the School of the Arts of Guangxi University won 2 first prizes and 1 second prize under the guidance of its teachers for undergraduate and graduate students, and also received 2 second prizes for excellent innovative cases in art education reform. Original drama works from the School of the Arts were selected for the gold, silver, and bronze awards in the Guangxi Drama Exhibition held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. These works were sponsored by the CPC publicity department of GZAR.