Date
| Event |
| 1931 | At the invitation of President John Hope, Hale Woodruff joins the Atlanta University faculty to initiate the art program for the Laboratory School. |
| 1933 | Sculptor Elizabeth Prophet joins Woodruff on faculty. Woodruff's art students become affectionately known as the Out House School because of the privies that punctuate their landscapes. |
| 1942 | Harlem Renaissance cultural spokesman Alain Locke gives inaugural address at the first of 29 Atlanta University art annual series -- Exhibitions of Paintings, Sculpture & Prints by Negro Artists of America. |
| 1950-52 | Hale Woodruff paints and installs the Art of the Negro murals for Trevor Arnett Library. |
| 1959 | Atlanta University Exhibition Gallery is named for Catherine Hughes Waddell who donates 81 pieces of contemporary American art to the collection. |
| 1968 | Richard Long initiates African Art collection which is augmented through gifts from several donors: Jerome Furman, Rafe Henderson and Harvey Schreter. |
| 1969 | David Levy contributes works by Jacob Lawerence, Marquerite Zorach & John Marin to the collection. Art collection s recieve gift of 16 paintings by William H. Johnson. |
| 1970 | The last Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture & Prints by Negro Artists of America occurs. |
| 1985 | Judge Irwin C. Mollison collection is acquired, consisting of paintings and prints by William McKnight Farrow, Archibald Motley and William Eduard Scott. |
| 1994 | Renovation of former library facility, Trevor Arnett to rehouse collection in reading room. |
| 1995 | Bequest received from James Baldwin fine art collection and gift from artist Larry Walker. |
| 1996 | The new gallery reopens in collaboration with the Olympic Arts Festival under its current name Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries. |
| 1997 | Acquired gifts of works by: Lonnie Graham, Bob Tomlinson and Charles Dawson |
| 1998 | Radcliffe Bailey creates and donates Date of Arrival in honor of Hale Woodruff and lineage of professors.
Collection receives artist gift from Helen Cohen and strip quilt from the Tysons, thereby initiating an African American quilt collection. |
| 1999 | Bill Hodges Galleries donate painting by Norman Lewis. Galleries acquire works Willie Jinks, Yusef Bell and Louis Delsarte |
| 2000 | Kathryn and Ken Chenualt donate portfolio of linocuts by Hale Woodruff: Selections from the Atlanta Period 1931-1946. Coreen Jennings donates print by Wilmer Jennings.
Galleries acquire works by Sam Gilliam and Luftee Sabree. |
| 2001 | The works of Mildred Thompson, Stefanie Jackson, Coreen Simpson, Lynn Marshall
Linnemeier, Bongi Bengu, Eldizer Cortor, Diane Edison and Susan Ross enter the collection. |