The Department is one of the pioneer institutions in Sri Lanka and in South Asia in teaching and researching visual art and visual culture. It offers a full-fledged Bachelor of Arts Honours degree programme in Art History and provides research guidance to postgraduate students, who are enrolled into the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Jaffna. The Department of Fine Arts was established at the University of Jaffna in 1982 under the headship of Prof. K. Indrapala, an eminent historian and archaeologist with a view to accommodating the Ramanathan Academy of Fine Arts (RAFA) into the university system. In 1991, with the creation of the Department of Music and Department of Dance, RAFA was separated from the Department of Fine Arts. Since the study of local cultures and promotion of local artistic traditions have been one of the priorities of the University of Jaffna and aspirations of the local community, the Department began to offer course units in Fine Arts (Art History) for the Bachelor of Arts general degree programme from 1985. In 1991, a full-fledged Honours degree programme in Fine Arts became a reality. The Fine Arts program, while being responsive to the disciplinary changes occurring globally in the field of visual studies and art history, has actively engaged with the studies of local visual culture as well as traditional and contemporary art practices of South Asia. Later, in the year 2020, the Fine Arts study programme was renamed as Art History with the approval of the UGC so as to match similar study programmes in the areas of visual art and visual culture offered by universities across the world and give a clear direction to the graduates as regards the career paths available to them. The Bachelor of Arts Honours in Art History degree programme was designed to encourage students to develop a critical understanding of works of art and visual culture, to examine the changing historical conceptions of art and the artist, and to explore visual arts in their wider cultural and political contexts. Those who read for this degree will gain skills and experience that will prepare them for career destinations in art history, museology, art management, curation, art education and heritage industry. 

The Drama and Theatre Arts discipline which functioned under the Department of Fine Arts since 1986 was separated and elevated to the Department status in 2022.