The only staffed public gallery on the West Coast, it exhibits artists from Karamea to Haast, and holds the National Pounamu Collection which was assembled from a biennial carving competition.

There had been an Arts Society in Greymouth since the 1940s; its early members included George Chippendale, Arthur Foster, David Graham, Allan Holcroft, and St Clair Sofield; they were joined by Toss Wollaston in 1949.

[3] The Grey District Council purchased it for $100,000, including $55,000 from the Lottery Grants Board, and leased it to the West Coast Society of Arts Inc.[1][6] The WCSA then refurbished the building and added an entrance ramp.

[1] A green and yellow colour scheme chosen by WCSA chair Sue Syme was applied in 1998, and was replaced by burgundy, fawn, and pearl in 2006, and white after the gallery's earthquake strengthening.

[9] The opening had been brought forward in the hope Barry Dallas, the mayor who had supported the WCSA and arranged the purchase of the building, could attend, but he had died a month earlier on 21 April.

[10][11] They had been purchased by the 1990 Commission and blessed by the Governor General Sir Paul Reeves,[3] and were joined by a flax rope made by Auckland weaver Dante Bonica.

[19] With the return of Yvonne Rust to the West Coast in 1998, the gallery staged Coasters In Clay, a retrospective of local potters that featured Chris Weaver and Andrew Nolan.

[27] The permanent collection, a mixture of purchases and donations, includes works by Toss Wollaston, Allan Holcroft, Olivia Spencer-Bower, Yvonne Rust, Peter Hughson, Russell Beck, 1990 lithographs from Muka Studio, and contemporary pounamu.

[28] St Clair Sofield's watercolour South Tip Head was donated in August 1993,[29] and a Stanley Palmer monoprint Abandoned Buses, Millerton in 1996.

[30] A Lotteries Commission grant at the beginning of 1995 allowed the gallery to build a temperature-controlled Conservation Room for its collection, at that point comprising 59 works valued at $50,000 (in 1996 dollars).

[31] The entranceway, named Te Ara Poutini – Pathways of Greenstone, was carved from tōtara over June and July 1998 by Tony Manuel and Turi Gibb.

[32] On 7 May 1999 a pounamu adze valued at $25,000, gifted to the gallery after being found in 1998 in 12 Mile Creek north of Greymouth, was stolen from a secured display case.

The Council reminded the Left Bank that it maintained the gallery's rent at just $10/week, and contributed around $20,000 a year when insurance, Mawhera Incorporation lease, and loss of rating were taken into account.