The Cyprus College of Art was founded in 1969 by the Cypriot painter Stass Paraskos, and is the oldest art college on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

The college was originally based in the town of Famagusta but, after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, it was forced to move to the town of Kato Paphos. It remained here until 1985, when the Cyprus Ministry of Education granted it use of a former school building in the village of Lempa , four kilometres north of Paphos. In 2002 the college was a partner in the establishment of the Limassol Studios, in the port city of Limassol, and it now uses the Limassol Studios as a teaching space alongside its campus in Lempa.

The first programme offered by the college was the Cyprus Summer School, now renamed the Cyprus Summer Studio, which gave mainly British and Irish art students an opportunity to spend a period of time making art in Cyprus. In the early 1970s the college intended to launch a postgraduate fine art programme, but this was delayed by the Turkish invasion in 1974, and did not start until 1978. The Postgraduate Diploma Course in Fine Art is now the college's most popular programme, attracting a wide range of students from all over the world.

With the start of teaching in Limassol the college launched its undergraduate fine art programmes in 2004. This includes foundation, adult education and degree courses in painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking. Almost all of the programmes taught at the college follow a British art education model, and several are validated in the United Kingdom.

Over the years many well-know international artists have studied, taught and worked at the college, including Sir Terry Frost, Euan Uglow , Jennifer Durrant , Mali Morris , Rachael Whiteread , Dennis Creffield and Christopher Cook . Although most students still come from outside Cyprus, mainly from Europe and North America, from 2000 the college began to encourage more Cypriot students to apply, particularly for its undergraduate courses.