The roots of this office go back to the 1940s, when interested faculty members founded a concert committee to bring live classical music to campus and to try to give Queen's faculty and students access to the some of the same cultural opportunities as those enjoyed by residents of larger centres.
This made the office one of the oldest university-based concert presenters in North America. The committee became a university staff department in the 1960s, called the Division of Concerts; in the 1970s it was given the name Performing Arts Office.
Since the opening of The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, classical music and other cultural opportunities are now enjoyed in the new facility.