The Department of the Arts held responsibility to co-ordinate and review the major cultural institutions, incorporating the Censorship Office and absorbing the activites of the Western Australian Arts Council. The Department was also charged with the responsibility of ensuring artistic and financial evalution and accountability from receipts of arts grants. The Department's primary role was therefore to:

• advise the State Government on arts policy and cultural development;

• liaise with the appropriate Commonwealth and State Departments, Local Government and the private sector;

• liaise with all sectors within the arts portfolio including Museums, Galleries, Libraries, Trusts and major arts organisations;

• support and promote the arts through programs of direct assistance.

The Ministry superseded the Department for the Arts. On 1 July 2001, the organisation was superseded by the Department of Culture and the Arts.

The Department for Culture and the Arts superceded the Ministry for Culture and the Arts on 1 July 2001.

The Department formed part of the Culture and the Arts portfolio with the agencies of the portfolio comprising: the Art Gallery of Western Australia; the State Library of Western Australia; the Western Australian Museum; the Perth Theatre Trust; and Screenwest Inc.

ArtsWA and the State Records Office were divisions of the Department.

Under the McGowan Government, a series of Machinery of Government changes were made to the public sector creating a number of new amalgamated departments.

The Department of Culture and the Arts, the Department of Sport and Recreation, the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor, the local government function of the Department of Local Government and Communities and its Office of Multicultural Interests, as well as the Aboriginal History Research Unit from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, were joined to form the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries on 1 July 2017.