Although student activity in the performing arts, particularly in a dramatic arts club, dates back to the late 1800s at North Carolina State University (then the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts), visual and performing arts at NCSU officially began with the formation of the Music Department in 1924 under the leadership of Percy W. Price, who was a professor in textiles. Price had formed the first organized college band in 1918, and he greatly expanded music programs at NCSU after 1924. Originally situated in the School of Science and Business, the Music Department eventually migrated to the Division of Student Affairs.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s the Division of Student Affairs, along with the leadership of the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union, sought to expand arts offerings to the student body. Toward this end, a Craft Center was established at the student union, and in 1963 it was moved to a dedicated space in the Thompson Gymnasium. The Gallery of Art and Design was also founded in the Erdahl-Cloyd building, exhibiting both student-produced and professional art. Around the same time, the director of the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union, Gerald Orlando Theodore Erdahl, who served from 1949 to 1961, started the Friends of the College series of concerts and performances. By the early 1960s, the University Theater program was established to give students a chance to not only attend theatre performances on campus but to get involved in their production. In 1963, the University Theater was established in the Thompson Gymnasium building.

The dance program was officially founded in 1990 under the umbrella of the arts programs in the Division of Student Affairs. Its origins lie in the founding of the first student dance company in 1977 by three NCSU students, Rhonda Bennett-Cagler, Inga Brandon-Pinnix, and Pamela Graham, in cooperation with one of their high school teachers, Georgene Dye. Dance courses were offered through the Department of Physical Education in the fall of 1986.

All of the university's major arts programs, including dance, the Crafts Center, the Music Department, and the Thompson theater, are administered through Arts NC State, the arts subdivision within the Division of Student Affairs. Arts NC State programs are funded through student fees and ticket revenues.