The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) occupies the former English-country-house-style mansion of textile heir James G. Hanes, on a wooded hill on the western edge of town. The galleries handle rotating exhibitions of contemporary American and international art, often with a regional southern focus, and the programming is consistently more adventurous than you would expect for a city of this size.
Admission is free. The grounds are pleasant for a stroll and the small modernist addition at the back of the original house is a piece of architecture in its own right. Closed Mondays.