From Wesleyan chapel to museum of modern art
The Tabernacle on Heol Penrallt (SY20 8AJ) began life as a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, and it might have gone the way of many redundant Welsh chapels had Andrew Lambert not bought the building in 1984. Two years of conversion later, it reopened as a performing arts centre on 11 October 1986, run by the Machynlleth Tabernacle Trust (registered charity 517426). The galleries came next: the Ellis Building in 1988 (extended 1992), the Owen Owen Building in 1994 and the Tannery Gallery in 2014. The venue gained museum accreditation in 2016 and adopted the name MOMA Machynlleth — you will also see it called MOMA Wales or MOMA Cymru. It is a genuinely surprising thing to find in a market town of two thousand people, sitting a minute's walk from the clock tower, and it has become one of the essential stops on any list of things to do in Machynlleth.
Seven galleries and the Tabernacle Collection
MOMA's seven galleries show a rolling programme of exhibitions built around the Tabernacle Collection — more than 400 works by artists living or working in Wales, gathered by the Trust since the 1980s. Changing shows sit alongside the permanent collection, and free lunchtime talks add context during exhibition runs. It is a collection with a clear purpose: rather than chasing international names, the Trust has spent four decades quietly documenting the art being made in Wales itself, which gives the galleries a strong sense of place — you leave knowing more about this country than when you walked in. The shop sells original Welsh art, which makes it a natural companion to a browse round the town's independent shops — Machynlleth is unusually well supplied with bookshops, galleries and makers for its size. Everything at MOMA is free to enter: exhibitions and lunchtime talks alike carry no admission charge, though donations help the charity keep it that way.
The auditorium: 350 seats in the old chapel
The heart of the building is still the chapel itself, now a 350-seat auditorium with translation booths, a grand piano and a cinema screen — a scale of venue few towns this size can offer. It hosts concerts, cinema and talks through the year, and during the Machynlleth Comedy Festival each May, Y Tabernacl becomes one of the festival's principal venues alongside the Parliament House and Y Plas. The acoustics and intimacy of the old chapel are a large part of why performers keep coming back to this corner of Mid Wales, and the translation booths reflect the building's place in a Welsh-speaking heartland town, where events run in both languages as a matter of course. Check MOMA's own listings for what is on during your visit — the programme changes constantly.
What's actually in the Tabernacle Collection
The collection is stronger than a visitor to a market town has any right to expect. Kyffin Williams is here, as are Brenda Chamberlain, Gwilym Pritchard, Gladys Vasey, Annie Ovenden and Ruth Jên Evans; the holdings also take in Augustus John, Stanley Spencer and Wyndham Lewis, work by the Brotherhood of Ruralists, and Mervyn Levy's drawings of Dylan Thomas. The focus is twentieth- and twenty-first-century artists living and working in Wales, and much of it came from exhibitions held in this very building — which is why it reads like a four-decade diary of Welsh art rather than a shopping list. The Tannery Gallery, restored and opened in 2014, is permanently given over to a rolling programme drawn from it, and works not on display can be seen by arrangement. Two annual fixtures are worth timing a visit around: the Tabernacle Art Competition, whose selected entries fill the Owen Owen and Bridge Galleries through the summer — the 2025 edition drew some 180 works on the theme “My Peaceful Place” — and a Young Welsh Artists show each November. The shop's original Welsh art makes it the best souvenir stop in town; see shopping.
“Perfect acoustics” — and a place in Welsh art
MOMA's own description of the converted chapel is unambiguous: perfect acoustics. The original pitch-pine pews are still in place (cushions have been added), and the oak-beamed foyer holds the interval bar — which explains why chamber musicians in particular keep coming back to a town of two thousand people. When nothing is scheduled you may wander the ground floor and the balcony, and even up onto the stage. A “Name A Seat” scheme helps fund the place, and the year's programme runs to concerts, talks, plays and literature events as well as the August festival, at which the Glyndŵr Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts is presented. Accreditation in 2016 put MOMA formally among Wales's museums, and it holds its own there by doing what the national collections don't: collecting the art of one country, patiently, from the exhibitions it stages itself. Entry stays free, National Art Pass holders get 10% off in the shop, and the office number is 01654 703355. For the town that produced it, see our history page.
Gŵyl Machynlleth — the festival, every late August
Gŵyl Machynlleth, the Machynlleth Festival, has run annually at The Tabernacle since August 1987, missing only 2020 — making it one of Mid Wales's longest-established arts festivals. The programme mixes classical music with traditional Welsh music and talks, spread across a week of concerts in the auditorium. The 2026 festival runs from 23 to 29 August. If you are planning a visit around it, book accommodation early — late August is busy in the Dyfi Valley — and see our where to stay and events pages for the wider picture of the town's festival year.
Practical Information
MOMA Machynlleth is at The Tabernacle, Heol Penrallt, Machynlleth SY20 8AJ — about two minutes on foot from the clock tower, heading up the street towards the station. Opening hours are Tuesday to Friday 10am–4pm and Saturday 10am–1pm; closed Sunday and Monday. Exhibitions and lunchtime talks are free. The nearest parking is the Maengwyn Street pay-and-display car park, and the railway station is roughly five minutes' walk — details on our getting here page. Combine a visit with lunch at one of the town's cafes and restaurants (see eat & drink), a look inside the Parliament House on a Wednesday, Friday or Saturday, or a Wednesday-morning wander through the street market, which has been trading under its 1291 charter for over 730 years.
Day trips