National Art Museum of China

Located on Wusi Street, the National Art Museum of China was established in 1962 to exhibit outstanding works of modern Chinese artists. The gallery has 6,000 square metres of exhibition space, which is divided into 14 exhibition halls currently housing 10,000 pieces, not including folk art. The central part of the gallery, with four floors, has an ancient Chinese pavilion type roof. The

surrounding flat roofs have skylights to allow for natural lighting. The building is decorated with glazed tiles, a traditional Chinese construction material and many of the walls are paved with light yellow ceramic bricks. The designer wanted the building to reflect ceramic art. With the development of a commercial economy, traditional donations from fine artists are now being gradually replaced by sales. The gallery gathers works through a variety of channels which include buying them from national and local exhibitions and offering financial aid to some fine artists who sell their work to the gallery. The research staff at the gallery excels at the development of the study of fine art, and they have published dozens of articles and papers. From 1962 to 1995, the China Art Gallery organized over 1,000 exhibitions covering everything from photography and calligraphy to stamp collections. Some of the shows were co-coordinated with other galleries such as the China Folk Artistic Work Gallery. From 1962 to 1977, the total budget for the gallery was 2.25 million yuan. The average annual budget since 1978 has increased to 560,000 yuan. With profits from the exhibitions, it has the potential to become the nation's finest art gallery.