The study recommended the National Gallery of Art for Wales, to be based in a reconfigured site in Cathays Park, Cardiff, while the National Centre for Contemporary Art was recommended in the 2008 study to be housed in a "white box space" in either Riverside, Newport or in Swansea.
[2] In 2017, the proposals for the gallery were first reported, with the government committed to funding a feasibility study with the support of Plaid Cymru.
[3] In October 2017, a two-year budget deal between the Welsh Labour government and Plaid Cymru was agreed and included a commitment to a "national art museum".
[4] In 2018, a feasibility report by Event, was said to have "showed significant support" for the proposal from artists, venues and other sector professionals.
[7] The 2018 feasibility report suggested that the gallery should first use no buildings at all, and instead be initially composed of works installed at sites across Wales.
[8] Between the 2019–2020 budget and 2023, the Welsh Government had committed £1.939 million to the project, including funding for digitising artworks.
Bowden said the government may have to revise and revisit the proposals, saying the initial plans to announce a decision in March 2024 could be delayed.
[15] In July 2024, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice, Lesley Griffiths, announced the concept of a main site would be scrapped, as well as plans for a North Wales museum.
The scrapping of the main site and delaying the gallery project was to raise funds and support to Wales' existing museums and collections.
[6] This national art collection is held in Cardiff under the care of Amgueddfa Cymru, and the collection comprises 46,000 works, including applied artworks (11,000), artworks on paper (32,000), oil paintings (<2,000), sculptures (>600) and some new media (<50) including film and video.
For the community, the gallery hopes to make contemporary art a stronger part of community health and wellbeing, provide learning opportunities (particularly for the youth), align with other digitisation projects, and invest in existing infrastructure to improve capital facilities.
As well as increasing investment in exhibitions and programmes of work, creating new opportunities for contemporary artists working/living in Wales, creating new jobs in the arts sector, and increasing the status and profile of contemporary art with potential for tourism locally and outside Wales.
[28] Re-using existing structures and possibly regenerating a town centre was desired of any candidate site.
Five local authorities, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, Swansea and Wrexham, were shortlisted for the further development of their proposals.
[21] In January 2024, Deputy Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Dawn Bowden MS, stated that due to high levels of funding needed for a main site, and the decreased funding in the Welsh government's budget, developing a main site may initially become more challenging than just an initial regional network of existing galleries.
[14] In July 2024, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice, Lesley Griffiths, announced the concept of a main site would be scrapped, as part of an initiative to raise £3.2 million to be re-allocated to support emergency repairs to National Museum Cardiff and National Library of Wales buildings.