They circulated a statement of purpose and aims and an invitation to join the group to ten leading Welsh artists.
That the first aims of painting and sculpture lie in the integration of design and emotion; the search for a powerful image that transcends the everyday world around us.
[12] An exhibition of modern Welsh art held at the Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, D.C., in 1965, although not formally associated with the Group, included work by several of its members.
[16] For the previous ten years, businessman Barrie Maskell had spent time tracking down and purchasing work made by each of the twelve original members.
[18] In 2019 At Cross Purposes, a creative project curated by Frances Woodley, was conceived in collaboration with the 56 Group Wales.
The project required that 16 members of 56 Group Wales each be partnered with an invited artist from elsewhere in the UK and Ireland, selected by Woodley.
Artist pairings: Ken Elias / Morwenna Morrison, Pete Williams / Mark Doyle, Robert Harding / Tim Dodds, Sue Hunt / Paula MacArthur, Dilys Jackson / Keith Brown, Carol Hiles / Jane Rainey, Sue Hiley Harris / Michael Geddis, Corinthe Rizvi / Louise Barrington, Martyn Jones / Martin Finnin, Tiff Oben / Garry Barker, Kay Keogh / Michelle McKeown, Harvey Hood / Molly Thompson, Alison Lochhead / Judith Tucker, Rhodri Rees / Ellen Mitchinson, Peter Spriggs / Christine Roychowdhury, Luis Tapia / Louise Manifold.
[20] Renowned Welsh artist Kyffin Williams was reported in 1981 to have had a strong antipathy for what he described as a group of "predominantly abstract painters or English carpetbaggers, ... who came down to Wales because they could not make it in the metropolis.