Prior to 1947 art courses at UT were in the related arts and crafts program within the College of Home Economics (later Human Ecology and then part of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences). The Department of Fine Arts, with a program in music, was approved in 1946. In the fall of 1947, a new Fine Arts Department was established with Professor David Van Vactor to head the department and begin the fine arts program in music. C. Kermit Ewing was hired in 1947 to head the art program within the department. The department was first located in a brown, wooden structure at 1505 West Cumberland and moved to the former Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house at 1541 W. Cumberland in 1950.