Southeastern Center For Contemporary Art
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Southeastern Center For Contemporary Art
OR:
Southeastern Center For Contemporary Art on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) is a
multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradit ...
contemporary art gallery A contemporary art gallery is normally a commercial art gallery operated by an art dealer which specializes in displaying for sale contemporary art, usually new works of art by living artists. This approach has been called the "Castelli Method" ...
in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in ...
. SECCA has no permanent collection but offers exhibitions of works by artists with regional, national, and international recognition. Although founded as a private institution, it became an operating entity of the
North Carolina Museum of Art The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding. Since the initial 1947 appropriation that e ...
under the
North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is a cabinet-level department within the state government of North Carolina dedicated to overseeing projects in the arts, culture, and history within the borders of the state. The cur ...
in 2007. Admission is free. SECCA has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) since 1979, one of only 300 museums in the United States to earn this distinction.


History

SECCA was founded in 1956 as the Winston-Salem Gallery of Fine Arts in
Old Salem Old Salem is a historic district of Winston-Salem, North Carolina that was originally settled by the Moravian community in 1766. This small city features a living history museum (operated by the non-profit Old Salem Museums & Gardens, organize ...
. James Gordon Hanes of the locally prominent Hanes family, who died in 1972, bequeathed his Norman Revival home built in 1929 and grounds to the gallery. The home was augmented with purpose-built exhibition space, and SECCA moved to the new location in 1977 under its current name. In 1990 the facility expanded again. SECCA was the subject of national political and media notoriety in 1989 when 23 U.S. Senators signed a letter challenging its involvement, along with the
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
, with a $15,000 arts prize awarded to controversial photographer Andres Serrano. Former U.S. Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY) denounced SECCA in speeches on the floor of the Senate, taking particular issue with what has become Serrano's most famous work, " Piss Christ," a photograph of a crucifix submerged in the artists's urine. Financial difficulties that began in 2003 forced SECCA to convey its property and operations to the state. As of 2014, the curator of the non-profit gallery is Cora Fisher. Exhibitions since 2010 include works by Tomory Dodge, Jennifer West,
Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová Stanislav Libenský (27 March 1921 – 24 February 2002) and Jaroslava Brychtová (18 July 1924 – 8 April 2020) were contemporary artists. Their works are included in many major modern art collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art an ...
, Alison Elizabeth Taylor,
Clark Whittington Art-o-mat machines are repurposed cigarette vending machines that dispense cigarette pack-sized artwork. Clark Whittington installed the first Art-o-mat at an art show in June 1997 that dispensed black & white photographs for $1.00 each. There ...
, Mark Jenkins, and Lee Walton.


Facilities

SECCA has three exhibition rooms with of space and a 294-seat auditorium. The complex reopened in 2010 after an extensive renovation by Szostak Design.


References


Further reading

*


External links


Official site
{{authority control Arts centers in North Carolina Museums in Winston-Salem, North Carolina Art museums and galleries in North Carolina Modern art museums in the United States Contemporary art galleries in the United States Art museums established in 1956 1956 establishments in North Carolina