In 1977, the world was ready for something new,” writes Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) president and founder Paula Wallace. “All around us, dreamers were dreaming up new ideas: Star Wars, the Clash, Apple. I was nearing thirty and ... wondered if I could do more.” Nearly forty years later, SCAD has become one of the largest and most highly regarded arts universities in the world.

An engaging, moving, and inspiring memoir, The Bee and the Acorn traces the journey of Wallace and her family to the historic Georgia coastal town of Savannah, where they set about creating a new university for the arts. The tiny college would be a radically different kind of institution, buzzing with progressive ideas about what a college could be and what it should do for students, changing the face of higher education.