University College of Visual Arts was established by the Government of Karnataka in June 1964 and was under the control of Director of Technical Education, Bangalore. Initially, Diploma Courses in Art for duration of 5 years was offered in two Disciplines i.e., (i) Painting (ii) Commercial Art. With a Government Order in the year 1992, Government School of Art and Crafts was transferred to Kuvempu University and brought under its jurisdiction as its Constituent College, and was renamed as University College of Fine Arts, Davangere.
The Diploma courses were upgraded to Bachelor Degree programmes, with specialization in four disciplines viz., (i) Applied Art, (ii) Painting, (iii) Sculpture and (iv) Print Making. In the Academic year 2005-06 the courses were modified as Bachelor of Visual Arts and Master of Visual Arts and Semester scheme was introduced in the place of Annual Scheme. In 2009 the college came under the jurisdiction of Davangere University and its Constituent College due to geographical location. This college also has been renamed as “University College of Visual Arts”, adopted Annual scheme curriculum. The students of this college are being trained to become popular Artists and now are placed extremely well at the State and National Level and have been recognized at the International Level too. The Golden Jubilee celebration of Ravindra Kalakshetra and Department of Kannada and Culture jointly organized a Seminar on the event of Nenapinokuli and Shilpakala Sambrama.