In September 1961, the first dedicated IU South Bend campus building was opened. Still in use today, the building was initially called the Indiana University Center and is now known as Northside Hall. Included in the building was an 800-seat auditorium with a fully-equipped stage and ample dressing rooms to be used for theatrical and musical performances. This established the IU South Bend Campus Theatre, effectively laying the foundation for arts programming at IU South Bend. Having been opened in September 1961, the building was officially dedicated on March 25, 1962.

The IU South Bend Campus Theatre soon opened its first season with Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" in November 1962. Prior to this, other drama groups had presented plays and musicals in the campus auditorium, but this November 1962 performance of "The Glass Menagerie" was the first to be performed by IU South Bend's own campus theatre group. The earliest productions at the IU South Bend Campus Theatre were directed by arts professor Joseph Green, who went on to become the founding chair of the Department of Theatre and Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University, Toronto, Canada. From the beginning, theatrical performances at IU South Bend encompassed a wide range of genres, including musical, comedy, children's, tragedy, and staged reading.

Although the first degrees granted by IU South Bend in 1967 were in Business and Education, Chancellor Lester Wolfson strongly believed in the value of a liberal arts education and worked steadily from the start of his administration to establish degree programs in music, theatre, and fine arts. In his first address to the faculty on September 19, 1964, Dr. Wolfson said, "We must use every legitimate way we can to convince our students that drama and film and painting and music are necessary complements to what they read in their literature classes, and the means to the harmonious development of their highest affective powers." He expressed hope that "our splendid theater will soon prove too small, rather than too large."

When Dr. Wolfson took charge of the IUSB campus in 1964, there were only twenty-two full-time professors at the university, including a painter and a sculptor, who encompassed the fine arts department. In 1965, Dr. Wolfson hired Robert Demaree Jr. as Lecturer and Director of Music and Warren Pepperdine as Assistant Professor and Director of Theatre. Demaree and Pepperdine proceeded to create strong departments and an impressive record of musical and theatrical productions in the campus auditorium. Demaree would serve as the founding Dean of the Division of the Arts when it was formed in 1990.

From 1965 until the formation of the Division of the Arts in 1990, the music program was its own division, and the Department of Fine Arts and Department of Communication Arts, which included both Theatre and Speech, were separate departments within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Chancellor Wolfson continued to support the development of the arts at IU South Bend for the duration of his tenure, and he even participated directly by establishing the Chester String Quartet and writing production notes for Joseph Green's production of "Romeo and Juliet" (1965) and for Warren Pepperdine's production of "The Merchant of Venice" (1985).

Faculty members in the Division of Music showed interest in community involvement from the earliest days of the division. The South Bend Youth Symphony was conceived by music faculty members in early 1967. In 1968, music faculty members sponsored a new professional orchestra in cooperation with the South Bend Symphony, called the South Bend Chamber Orchestra. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Midwest Pops Orchestra and the South Bend Symphony Chamber Orchestra would spin off from this initial chamber orchestra. The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition was started in 1971 at the suggestion of music faculty members Madeline Schatz and Robert Demaree. A professional opera company, the Michiana Opera Guild, Inc., was founded in 1978 with financial and staff assistance from the Division of Music.

In 1966, Dr. Wolson hired the director of the South Bend Art Center, Harold Zisla, to chair the Department of Fine Arts. Zisla had administrative experience, a degree in art history, and experience as a professional artist to his credit. In 1971, Zisla hired Tony Droege as professor of painting, and Tuck Langland as professor of sculpture. At that time, IUSB had only one art classroom in Greenlawn Hall; sculpture was taught in a living room; and the campus did not yet offer degrees in art. Droege and Langland arrived with the promise of being able to build their own programs, helped by the support of department chairman Zisla and, in Dr. Wolfson, a chancellor who supported the arts.

When an addition to Northside Hall was proposed, the architects included spaces for painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, and printmaking, as well as art history. The art department would also have a secretary and a slide library. In 1972, the extension, called Northside West, was opened, and the art department had a dedicated home on campus. When Langland found that the space intended for sculpture in Northside West was too small, he arranged for the university to rent a space at 910 East Wayne Street in South Bend. Known as the Wayne Street Studio, the building opened to sculpture students in September 1975.

In 1974, Langland was promoted to associate professor and granted tenure, and Zisla asked him to take over as chairman of the fine arts department. Langland accepted and chaired the department until Tony Droege took over in 1982. Later, printmaker Alan Larkin, who had been hired as a full-time faculty member in 1977, took over the chairmanship in 1990. As chair, Zisla successfully advocated for IUSB to grant a BA in Fine Arts; the first such degree was awarded in 1975.

In July 1990, under the administration of Chancellor Dan Cohen (1987-1995), the arts programs at IU South Bend were restructured to create a new Division of the Arts. The restructuring combined the Division of Music with the departments of theater, fine arts, mass communications, and speech. With this reorganization, Robert Demaree, who had long been the chair of the Division of Music, became the founding Dean of the Division of the Arts.

That same year, long-time resident pianist John Owings left the university. Upon his departure, Chancellor Cohen approached Lee and Geraldine Martin of the Elkhart-based Martin Foundation requesting funds to establish an endowed professorship in piano.

After an international search, in August 1991, the Soviet Georgia-born pianist Alexander Toradze was chosen as the Martin Endowed Professor of Piano. After winning the Silver Medal at the 1977 Van Cliburn competition, Toradze had gone on to become an internationally respected pianist, playing regularly with major orchestras all over the world and releasing successful recordings. Toradze's credentials helped to raise the profile of the music program at IU South Bend, bringing in top quality students from all over the world. Toradze joined the faculty for the Fall 1991 semester, and his debut recital was in March 1992. Toradze continued to serve as Martin Endowed Professor of Piano until his retirement from the university in 2017.

Meanwhile, 1991 also saw the first graduates with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre degree. Later, the Indiana Higher Education Commission would approve the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre degree program in 1998, and, in 2002, the first Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre degrees were granted.

In 1992, the husband-and-wife team of Gayle McKinney Griffith and Donald Muldrow Griffith, who had founded the successful Fountainhead Tanz Theatre in Berlin, Germany, joined the faculty of Indiana University South Bend as the founding directors of the Dance Program at the university. The Griffiths continued to direct the program and teach dance courses until 1995.

Also in the 1990s, the Division of the Arts began offering a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication. Students could pursue a B.A. in Mass Communication on one of three tracks: journalism, broadcasting, or public relations.

Under the administration of Chancellor Kenneth Perrin (1997-2002), all academic divisions within IUSB were changed to schools and colleges. Therefore, the Division of the Arts became the School of the Arts in August 2000. Theatre professor Tom Miller stepped in as the Acting Dean.

Also under Perrin's leadership, the Indiana Commission on Higher Education approved a BFA in Theatre degree, and an Electronic Media degree was also added to the school. In 1997, the fine arts department hired a full-time photographer, Andrea Greitzer, and a full-time graphic designer, Karen Ackoff. Jewelry and ceramics classes were also added with part-time faculty. Ron Monsma joined the department as a full-time lecturer in drawing and painting.

In August 2000, Jon W. Meyer became the first Dean of the School of the Arts. When Meyer stepped down in January 2001, he was succeeded by former Acting Dean Thomas C. Miller, who had started teaching at Indiana University South Bend as the scenic director and lighting designer for theatre productions in 1975. Miller served as Dean of the school from 2001-2008.

After years of vocal and financial support from Ernestine Raclin, a local patron of the arts who was the daughter of 1st Source Bank founder Ernest M. Morris, the School of the Arts was renamed as the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts in her honor in 2002.

In 2008, Marvin Curtis succeeded Thomas Miller as Dean of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts.

Dean Curtis launched Aspire Magazine in 2009 to increase community awareness and highlight events and accomplishments of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts. The publication received the Bronze Circle of Excellence Award from the Council of Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

In 2014, the Louise E. Addicott and Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall was completed. Dean Curtis secured funding for the $1.8 million performance hall through donations, including $1.2 million from the Georgina Joshi Foundation.

IU South Bend earned the All-Steinway School distinction in fall 2019 when the Raclin School of the Arts purchased the final two pianos needed to make at least 90% of the institution's piano collection Steinway and Sons. This made IU South Bend one of the only Steinway Schools in Indiana (the other being Ball State University), also making the institution one of only 212 colleges, universities, and conservatories throughout the world with this distinction.

Also in 2019, the Raclin School of the Arts launched the first IU Jazz Fest, as well as establishing the annual Teddy Bear Concert during the Christmas holiday, collecting 300 teddy bears for donations to various community organizations.

Marvin Curtis stepped down from his role as dean in 2020. Upon Curtis' departure, Professor of Music Jorge Muñiz stepped in as Interim Dean starting in July 2020. In 2022, Muñiz stepped down from the Interim Dean role and Brenda Phillips, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), took on the additional role of Acting Dean of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts.

Much of the historical information about the fine arts department at IU South Bend has been adapted from "Sculpture at Indiana University South Bend" by Janice Langland, 2003. This publication is available online in the Archives of Institutional Memory website: https://institutionalmemory.iu.edu/aim/handle/10333/9276