Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art

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The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (or SECCA) is an art museum and non-profit located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was founded in 1956 to provide gallery space for local artists, but has expanded since then to provide a venue for artists from around the United States, with an emphasis on the Southeastern states. In addition to a gallery space, SECCA also has art, yoga and Tai Chi classes, and in collaboration with the Winston-Salem Cinema Society, exhibits international films in the Cinema at SECCA film series.

SECCA was briefly 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, 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.