About Us

On the first day of July 1921 the University of Dhaka opened its doors to students with Sir P.J. Hartog as the first Vice-Chancellor of the University. The University was set up in a picturesque part of the city known as Ramna on 600 acres of land.

When the Faculty of Fine Art was founded by Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin in 1948 it was called the Government Institute of Fine Art. It became an affiliated college with the Dhaka University in 1963, changing its name to the East Pakistan College of Arts and Crafts. With the liberation of the country in 1971 it was called the Bangladesh Government College of Arts and Crafts. In 1983 it merged with the Dhaka University as an institution. Finally in 2008, it turned into a Faculty of Dhaka University.

The Government Institute of Art began with the classes of the first year of the two-year basic course. It was intended to start the Drawing and Painting (Fine Art) and Graphic Design (Commercial Art) departments in 1951. Although classes began in 1951, the Drawing and Painting Department was founded in 1948. The department when first established was called the Fine Art Department. It may be mentioned here that the department which taught painting in the western method was also called the Fine Art Department in Calcutta Government School of Art. In the brief introduction of the College of Arts and Crafts published in 1972 this department was called the Fine Art (Sukumar Kala) Department. In the syllabus of 1978 it was called the Department of Drawing and Painting (Fine Art). In 1983 after the Institute became a full-fledged Institute of Dhaka University it became known as the Department of Drawing and Painting dropping the Fine Art completely.

The Department offers BFA and MFA degrees for the students and recently Ph.D. course has introduced. The curriculum of the department is course system based. There is 4 years BFA course and final CGPA is prepared by combining all the four years GPA. The result of two years MFA course is prepared by same system.