Atlanta College of Art

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The Atlanta College of Art (ACA), established in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1905, was the first non-profit college of visual art in the Southeastern United States.

As an original and founding member of Atlanta's Woodruff Arts Center, the Atlanta College of Art was adjoined with the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Alliance Theatre. The college was located in Midtown Atlanta on Peachtree Street, a business district and home of the arts and culture in metropolitan Atlanta.

The college offered studies in the mediums of drawing, painting, printmaking, photograghy, sculpture, digital art, video and graphic design. The school also offered programming to the greater Atlanta community through the Georgia Artists Registry, ACA Gallery shows, community education classes for adults, and summer programs in the arts for children and teens.

In August 2005, the boards of trustees of the Woodruff Arts Center and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) formally approved the merger of ACA and SCAD. In June 2006, the two institutions combined operations at SCAD's Atlanta location. Although the merger was initially and widely contested by many ACA students, faculty and members of the Atlanta arts community, the advent of a single institution of art and design, ultimately, broadened and strengthened the faculty, curricular offerings, and physical and human resources, resulting in the formation of one of the premier colleges of art and design in the United States.

Notable alumni of the Atlanta College of Art include Radcliffe Bailey, Roe Ethridge, Kara Walker, and Ty Pennington.

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