In 2011, in a government-coordinated effort to channel people into the museums, the museum, together with almost all public museums in Beijing, opened its doors. Since then the 30 yuan ($4.35) entrance fee for the art museum has been scrapped, and visitor numbers have soared.

"What we are doing now is to cultivate the audience, with the hope that one day there will be enough people willing to pay a reasonable sum for an afternoon with art, and that ticket sales will be good enough to support what we would really like to do," Wu said.

Another criticism leveled at the national art museum is that it is not open enough to new art forms.

"As a national art museum, we try to be inclusive and maintain the balance between the classical and experimental, and between different art forms and schools," Wu says.

"However, we need to face the fact Chinese viewers are still most fond of realistic expressions in art. Before we try to introduce them to something new and mind-blowing, what we really need to do first is to get them into our galleries."

"There are two types of artists: those who progress by constantly undermining and reinventing themselves and their art, and others who do that by consistently following the same path. Both types deserve our wall space."

Fan Di'an, president of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, who was the museum's director between 2005 and 2014, says: "Art museums must fulfill their role as educators. This is partly done through showing the public our most treasured legacy of art, and partly through familiarizing them with what we call the ongoing history of art, ground where creativity is taking hold."