Dedicated upon its completion in May 1982, the Olin Fine Arts Center was built and equipped as a gift of the Olin Foundation, Inc. The building represents one of the largest single gifts ever received by Washington & Jefferson College.

The Olin Fine Arts Center provides the College and the community with a superior center for the visual and performing arts. The Olin Art Gallery has specialized lighting and supports for the display of three-dimensional and hanging works. In recent years the Gallery has housed works by such nationally and internationally acclaimed artists as Malcolm and Evans Parcell and Nat Youngblood. The Gallery also is the home of the W&J National Painting Show, which attracts entries by award-winning artists from across the country.

The 486-seat Olin Theatre can accommodate dramatic, musical, and dance performances. The facility features an orchestra pit, dressing rooms, costume rooms, a portable dance floor, a shop for set construction, and advanced sound and lighting systems. The Olin Theatre hosts the W&J Arts Series, which brings award-winning performers to the campus during the academic year, and the Center Stage Players, which presents a calendar of programming each summer. W&J students present a number of musical and theater performances during the year.

The Olin Fine Arts Center also is home to W&J's Departments of Arts, Music, Theater, and Communication. Facilities in the art department include classrooms and studios for ceramics, sculpture, graphics, and painting and drawing as well as kilns. Among the facilities in the music department are a library, a listening room, rehearsal rooms, and faculty office/studios.