SAMA's permanent collection numbers more than 4,000 works of local, regional, national and international artists, with an emphasis on American art and the regional art of Pennsylvania. American holdings range from the 18th-century to the present, with work Andy Warhol, Will Barnett, Albert Bierstadt, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Moran, John Sloan, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, and others.
Through its collection, SAMA also maintains a repository of western and central Pennsylvania’s contributions to American art and holds a strong catalogue of local and regional artists including Franklin Dullin Briscoe, Frederick Counsel, George Hetzel. SAMA Altoona mounts quarterly exhibitions and holds a rare collection of albumen photographic prints by William H. Rau, the official photographer for the Pennsylvania Railroad at the turn of the 20th century.
SAMA has three additional sites -- in Johnstown, Lingonier Valley, and Loretto, PA (see separate listings) -- offering approximately two dozen exhibitions annually.