The Savannah College of Art and Design is one of the world’s most respected art colleges and has had a tremendous impact on the city’s art scene. When the college expanded its contemporary art museum recently, adding 65,000 square feet and updating many design elements, it elevated Savannah’s profile as a destination for art aficionados even more.  The SCAD Museum of Art hosts traveling exhibitions from around the world. — Photo courtesy of SCAD Museum of Art

Many works from the college’s permanent collection are on display in the museum, including pieces from the Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art, one of the country’s most significant collections of African American art, and the Earle W. Newton Collection, which features work by artists such as Hogarth, Van Dyck, Gainsborough and Reynolds.

Other pieces in the SCAD permanent collection include haute couture from designers Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel and Oscar de la Renta, along with modern and contemporary works by Salvador Dalí, Willem de Kooning, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and more.

The SCAD Museum of Art also hosts a number of renowned travelling exhibitions. Recent visiting exhibitions have included Little Black Dresses, curated by Vogue Contributing Editor André Leon Talley, and Grids: An Archive of Collective Memory, a collaged collector card installation by artist Siemon Allen.