ARGUS COMMENT...Art gallery could kick-start regeneration

11:41am Tuesday 22nd May 2007

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IT is early days yet and there is still a lot of discussion to be had but it appears Newport is a front-runner for a new multi-million pound national centre for contemporary art in Wales.

This is according to the director of the influential think-tank the Institue of Welsh Affairs, John Osmond and is a potentially great piece of news for the city.

No doubt the mere mention of art will send many people into a tailspin and there will be countless arguments about whether or not the money would be better spent elsewhere.

But art galleries can act as great catalysts for change and regeneration and their presence in a city can have a major knock-on effect for the rest of the area.

Bilbao, was a run of the mill industrial port in northern Spain with nothing very much to attract the visitor. It was definitely not on the tourist trail. But the opening of the unique Guggenheim Museum in the city has led to an economic transformation.

Within a relatively short space of time Bilbao has earned its place as a must-see city.

Just a little bit of that magic would do wonders for Newport, which is already well down the road of its own transformation.

Of course there are many questions which still need to be addressed, not least the issue of where the money would be coming from, where the building would be sited and when the project could go ahead, before we can give the plan our unequivocal support.

But the fact that Newport is even being considered for such a major art project has to be good news.