A commission composed of prominent cultural figures and artists from the territory of Yugoslavia (Lazar Trifunović, Miodrag B. Protić and Zoran Pavlović – Belgrade, Zoran Kržišnik – Ljubljana, Boris Petkovski – Skopje, Boris Vižintin – Rijeka, Ljiljana Slijepčević and Dragan Kostić – Niš) prepared a report on the conditions, needs and possibilities of establishing a Gallery in Niš, also elaborating on the phases of the gradual development of the institution. The Municipal Assembly supported their idea and concept. At the session held on June 9, 1970, a decision was made to establish the Gallery of Contemporary Art (no. 05-06/257) and Dr. Lazar Trifunović was appointed acting director. Based on this solution, the Gallery began its work as the first independent institution of its kind in the Serbian region and the third in the republic (after the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade and the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Novi Sad). Shortly after its establishment, the Gallery’s Artistic Council was formed with its president Ivan Tabaković (at that time a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Arts).
The first years of the Gallery’s existence were accompanied by constant spatial problems. In four years, the Gallery changed its address three times, did not expand in terms of staff, and had only three employees. Originally conceived as a unique cultural institution in all of Serbia, the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Niš had to adapt its survival to its possibilities.
Spatial, staffing, and material problems led the Gallery to become part of the National Museum in Niš. The decision to integrate was made on October 1, 1975, when the Gallery became the Department of Contemporary Art. However, since there is a significant difference in the working methodology between a museum and a gallery focused on contemporary art, since there was no staffing or a resolved issue of financing gallery activities, the exhibition activity did not develop, so since 1978 there have been initiatives to re-establish the Gallery, and on December 26, 1980, based on the decision of the Municipal Council of Niš No. 01-985/1, now under the full name Gallery of Contemporary Art Niš – it became an independent institution. Since March 1981, the Gallery has been located on the second floor of the building on the Quay of the Serbian Sisters No. 1, where it is still located today. The building belongs to the Old Town and was built by the Joint Stock Company in 1927.
On February 11, 1992, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia issued an opinion on the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts (GCFA) Niš: “The Gallery researches, collects and records, preserves, protects, studies and exhibits museum material and current fine art creations from Niš, Serbia and other areas. It carries out activities to protect cultural assets and has the character of a museum institution.”
Over the decades of its operation, the total number of employees at the Gallery has varied from a minimum of three to a maximum of twenty-five. Currently, the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš has fifteen full-time employees in two departments. The Director of the Gallery is Emilija Ćoćić Bilić, the Department of Art Collections, Exhibitions, Internet Communication and Publishing consists of: Milica Todorović, Radmila Kostić, Sonja Vukašinović, Milan Ristić, Lela Dinić, Nebojša Stojković, Jovan Spasić, Gordana Dragojević, Maja Živković and Srećko Stanković, while the Department for Administrative, Financial and Technical Affairs consists of: Tatjana Stošić, Bratislav Aranđelović, Dragana Jokanović and Ivana Nikolić.
The Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš is an institution whose main task is to present, study and popularize contemporary visual art, which is realized through exhibition and publishing and information activities. In addition, the Gallery has its own fund of works of art, which is why it has the character of a museum institution and performs all museological activities prescribed by law. The museological activity of the GSLU Niš includes the preservation, protection and study of the existing fund, as well as taking care of its constant replenishment and presentation. Also, since its establishment, the Gallery has been managing all the work of implementing the Art Colony “Sićevo” and since 2006 has been organizing the Graphic Workshop in Sićevo. Both events are international in nature.