A new National Centre for Contemporary Art (NCCA) and a major redevelopment of existing museum buildings to create a National Gallery for Wales are the main proposals in ‘The future display of visual art in Wales’, a report for the Welsh Assembly Government by consultants ABL. Based on 2008 prices, the study pinned the costs at £85.5m for a national gallery, with running costs of £707k a year. Wales’s collection of art would be housed in the existing National Museum in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, where a new North Wing would accommodate the current Science Museum collections. The NCCA, which would require the creation of a new “signature building”, would cost £38.8m, with development costs of £2.5m for the first six years, and annual running costs of £1.5m. The report says that “The NCCA project lacks an obvious ‘owner’ at this stage… it is critical that an owner or ownership group is established as early as possible”. Stakeholders would include the Welsh Assembly Government and the Arts Council of Wales (ACW). Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive of ACW, said, "Wales deserves national institutions for the visual arts... These projects present significant funding challenges that will take time to achieve, but they form part of our long-term vision.” However, Heritage Minister, Alun Ffred Jones, has indicated that current economic conditions and recent reductions in National Lottery funding mean that the projects cannot be contemplated until after 2012, while the report’s authors point out that “The development of the National Gallery… could not come on stream before 2015 to 2020.” The publication of the report coincides with the Minister’s announcement of new funding to support medium-term capital projects for contemporary arts facilities in Llandudno, Aberystwyth and Cardiff (£700,000), and to convert the West Wing at National Museum Cardiff to create a space dedicated to art (£1m). Capaldi said that ACW would “continue to work on building capacity for the artists, craftspeople, creatives and curators who are working in Wales's contemporary visual culture and growing and involving audiences for this work”. The ABL report is part of a development process which has been underway since the closure of the Centre for Visual Arts in 2000 after only 18 months of operation.