Schools of Arts provided vital news and links with the outside world for early settlers in isolated towns. Although Queensland does not have the same vast area of Western Australia, it has the most isolated large regional towns in Australia. A school of arts was regarded as essential in newly settled areas; its site was allocated when the town was surveyed, and a government grant was available. Grand buildings were erected in major centres, but small settlements around pastoral homesteads or mining claims also established their modest schools of arts, which declined only when the population moved on. There were 134 schools of arts spread across Queensland in 1901.

Schools of Arts mirrored the changing needs of the societies which they served. Reading rooms provided news for folk who had no other way of reading newspapers or journals; they provided cultural and social outlets for people who were isolated or needed an alternative to pubs and gambling pursuits; and their libraries were well patronised until the advent of municipal libraries. As educational opportunities became more widely available, the educational impact of the institutes declined, but Schools of Arts in Queensland were key players in the provision of technical education from the 1880s until the 1920s. By the 1950s the schools of arts in Queensland had lost much of their relevance, however many buildings survived as community halls and by the end of the century, some were essential as venues for local community activities, and were enjoying restoration.