The Center for Contemporary Arts, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, was founded in 1989 with the support of the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council to provide enriching and educational experiences for the region's communities through the promotion and support of artists.

In 1993, the Board of Directors hired its first part-time Executive Director and raised more than $12,000 to turn a former department store, located in the heart of the downtown, into three beautiful galleries, classrooms, and artists' studios. In 2002 renovations provided improved traffic flow, access to a passenger elevator, more visually stimulating galleries and ADA compliance. The art research library strengthens the educational element of our mission and is now online with the Abilene Public Library. The Center currently boasts more than 70 regional artist members and rents ten studios. Four galleries, one devoted to photography, present 24-28 admission-free exhibits of regional art and international photography to more than 26,000 individuals each year.

A major program of the Center, ArtWalk, was initiated in 1993. This monthly celebration of visual and performing arts in Abilene's historic downtown involves more than 70 school groups, businesses and community organizations annually, including three galleries, three museums, an historic theatre and a variety of restaurants and specialty shops. Each "second Thursday" mini-festival brings new offerings of art and entertainment, and provides exhibition and performance opportunities for local artists and musicians. Recurring and new themes help ArtWalk attract a broad cross-section of the community; the average attendance for this monthly event has grown to between 700 and 1,200. In 1996, ArtWalk earned the Center the prestigious award of "Best Promotion of a Downtown" by The Downtown Associations of Texas. In 2006, the first-ever CarWalk brought more than 120 hot rods, classic and custom cars to Abilene's downtown where they were viewed by more than 2,500 eager ArtWalkers. This event continued to draw record attendees in 2007.

ArtReach, the Center's arts education and community outreach program, began serving the special needs community in 1996, and continues to pair trained artist members and art instructors with social agencies to provide free weekly art classes to individuals whose access to the arts may be limited by factors such as income, age, ethnicity, disability or criminal history. The Center's Coordinator of Education oversees the expanded ArtReach programming. Under the guidance of this art instructor, ArtReach now also provides in-school arts enrichment programs and state-accredited CPE workshops for area educators. In 2005-06 ArtReach served more than 1000 individuals; attendance grew to over 1100 in 2007.

In 2001, the Center undertook a three-dimensional public art display, "NO Bull … Its Buffalo", that traveled to area communities and the state capitol in Austin. This was the largest and most popular art exhibit ever undertaken by the Center at the time. The 2001 Readers Choice Award for "Best Museum Exhibition" was awarded by the Abilene Reporter-News in recognition of this accomplishment. The Center's three-dimensional, interactive public art project "Texas Myths and Legends" toured Texas with stops in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin and surrounding communities, as well as Abilene area elementary schools. Over 450,000 people viewed this exhibit during its 2003-2004 tour. Since 2004, the Center has continued strengthening its regional presence and reaching new audiences through touring exhibits. "The New School," featured the works of seven Center artist members including Nic Noblique, Brady Nichols and John Palmer, bringing contemporary abstract and pop art to a rural community. In 2007-08, Center artist members created an exhibit titled "Broken Patterns: Nature Interrupted", in which various aspects of environmental consciousness were explored. The exhibit was on display at the Center during the months of June and July 2007 and then traveled to Lubbock in February 2008. In 2005-08, Center touring exhibits reached more than 1600 viewers in Breckenridge, Odessa, Lubbock and Port Isabel.

In 2009 the Center celebrated its 20th anniversary. In recognition of this achievement, a public exhibit, I Wanna Go Home to the Armadillo was created. The traveling exhibit included twenty life-size armadillo sculptures that were decorated by Center Artist Members. The armadillos were featured in the Capitol rotunda in Austin, Texas, the Center for Contemporary Arts, Frontier Texas, the Buffalo Gap Historic Village and Perini's Steakhouse Restaurant. The exhibit concluded its tour at Perini's Steakhouse where artist Joe Barrington christened his large Barbadillo armadillo sculpture and read a proclamation from the Mayor of Abilene declaring August 22, 2009 as "Armadillo Day" in Abilene, Texas.