Fisk University was founded by members of the American Missionary Association in 1866, three years after the final signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, a document issued by President Abraham Lincoln proclaiming that all persons held as slaves would become free. At its inception, Fisk offered an elementary education program to meet the basic educational needs of newly freed slaves. In 1867, Fisk University was incorporated as a private educational institution, offering a secondary liberal arts curriculum to men and women of all races. Today, Fisk University remains one of the most highly respected liberal arts educational institutions in the country

In 1901, the Fisk Teacher Training School determined that aesthetic development was an important part of the education process and established the Tanner Art Club in 1903 for the purpose of enhancing language learning by developing "an appreciation for the beautiful and of the power to produce beautiful things." This idea was supported and advanced by Fisk sociology professor Charles S. Johnson, later Fisk University’s first African-American president, with his commission of the Fisk Murals (Symbolic Negro History Series) for the new library in 1930. The creator of these murals, painter and illustrator Aaron Douglas, later established Fisk’s first formal art department where he served as chairman for over 30 years. In 1949, Johnson and his friend, cultural philanthropist, art critic and photographer, Carl Van Vechten orchestrated the transfer of a gift of 101 modern art works from renowned painter Georgia O’Keeffe. These paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures were from the private collection of her late husband, noted photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Fisk’s first gymnasium was renovated to house the new collection, creating the first permanent gallery building on Fisk’s campus.

In the 1960s and 70s, Fisk began a rigorous visual art curriculum of studio courses with the dual appointment of David Driskell, an artist and art scholar from Howard University, as Chair of the Art Department and as the first official Director of the University’s Carl Van Vechten Gallery. Driskell began an active program of collecting modern and contemporary African-American and contemporary African art, as well as works by mainstream contemporary artists. Many of the artworks that entered the Fisk collection at that time were the generous donations of friends of the University, other art institutions, foundations and important artists who served as artists-in residence in Fisk’s Art Department. Under Driskell’s leadership, the art collection at Fisk grew in number and in stature.

In the early 1970s, the Alfred Stieglitz Collection was sent to New York for conservation after more than 20 years on exhibit. The Carl Van Vechten Gallery underwent renovation and redesign, directed by the architectural firm of McKissack & McKissack and Thompson of Nashville, Tennessee, in anticipation of the return of the newly refreshed collection. The rededication of the gallery took place on July 2, 1984 under then president, Dr. Henry Ponder.

An exhibition space on the 3rd floor of the University Library was renovated in the early 1990s and rededicated as the Aaron Douglas Gallery. Initially, the gallery featured a permanent exhibit of the University’s prestigious African art collection. In recent years, the Aaron Douglas Gallery has become a venue for an active schedule of changing exhibitions highlighting art works from the University’s permanent collection, as well as temporary exhibitions of artworks loaned by organizations in the art, education, civic and business arenas.

Today, the Fisk University Galleries holds an impressive and extensive collection of pre-modern, modern and contemporary paintings, sculptures, photographs, textiles and fine prints from a variety of cultures and by many mid-career, established and world-renown artists. In addition to its exhibition program, current Galleries programs focus on collections research and the development of educational programs for the general public