CAST is based in Helston, in the former School of Science and Art given to the town by the philanthropist John Passmore Edwards in 1897. The building was extended in 1905 and 1913 when it became a secondary school, but it became redundant with the introduction of comprehensive education in the 1970s and was later used as a community centre. It was boarded up in 2010 and finally sold by Helston Town Council in 2012. When they acquired the building the Trustees of CAST raised funds for a limited schedule of urgent repairs, pending a more substantial scheme of renovations. Artists first moved into studios in the building in June 2013.

As an organisation, CAST has developed out of a series of contemporary art events organised in Cornwall since 2010: The Falmouth Convention (May 2010), The Penzance Convention (May 2012) and The Cornwall Workshop, an ongoing series of residential workshops held since 2011 at Kestle Barton on the Lizard peninsula.

In May 2014 CAST hosted a ‘workshop of workshops’ at Kestle Barton, with former workshop participants and special guests. A second workshop, held in April 2015, involved artists, curators and representatives of all the leading art institutions in Cornwall and generated a preliminary plan for a festival of international contemporary art in Cornwall.

The workshop discussions with artists and curators held at Kestle Barton in 2014 and 2015 also informed the preparation of an application to Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence scheme, submitted in 2016 and leading to the award of funding for Groundwork, a three-year programme of international contemporary art culminating in a season of exhibitions and events in 2018. Kestle Barton, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange and Tate St Ives were closely involved in the preparation of the Ambition for Excellence application and were partners in the programme, which ran from May to September 2018.

In 2017 the Trustees had made a successful application to Arts Council England’s Small Capital scheme, for funding to undertake basic renovations to the building and to create a café in preparation for the Groundwork programme. Work began in 2018, and the first phase of renovations was completed in time for the opening of Groundwork in May 2018. The second phase of renovations took place after the close of Groundwork, starting in January 2019 and finishing in March that year. This phase of work included the creation of several new studios in spaces formerly occupied by the school toilets, providing affordable small workspaces suitable for recent graduates and emerging artists.

As part of Groundwork, the former school assembly hall was transformed into a black box screening space, initially to show work by Steve McQueen and Francis Alÿs. It subsequently became the screening space in which all CAST’s artists moving image programmmes are presented.

In 2021 CAST secured funding from the Community Led Local Development programme (CLLD), which enabled the creation of a dedicated ceramics studio, which opened in the summer of 2022.

In 2023 ‘CAST rehabilitation phase two’ was awarded £705,374 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Work started in 2024, including the replacement of roofs and installation of insulation and solar panels, building of new Cornish granite steps to connect the back of the building to Wendron Street car park, and essential improvements to other access routes, as well as renovation of windows and upgrading of all internal public areas.