Lindsborg ? The Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery at Bethany College will be closed to the public for the next nine months while renovations are installed that will make the 54-year-old gallery more environmentally friendly and modern.

The gallery in Lindsborg will close Thursday and work will begin to install a geothermal heating and cooling system, new lighting, insulation, electrical work, ceiling and wall coverings, The Salina Journal reported. The gallery is scheduled to reopen in March.

“It’s a pretty intense upgrade,” said curator Ron Michael. “By the time it’s done, it will be as green as possible.”

The original gallery was built primarily to house the paintings of Birger Sandzen, who immigrated from Sweden to teach at Bethany in 1894 and featured Kansas in most of his works.

The renovation will cost between $1.5 million to $1.7 million at the gallery, which has not had a major upgrade since it opened in 1957, Michael said.

In November 2007, the Sandzen board of directors started a $3 million campaign to extend Sandzen’s legacy through outreach and education, an expanded collection of artwork and building renovations and improvements.

The new geothermal heating and cooling system and LED lighting in the galleries will use less energy and cost less to run.

“We’ll add dimmers to all our spaces,” Michael said. “When people enter the rooms, the lights will go on, and when they leave, they’ll automatically turn off.”

Other changes will include a new ceiling and roof, new windows, insulation and new electrical wiring. And new wall coverings will help freshen the look of the gallery walls, which have “a gazillion” nail holes from years of changing pictures, Michael said.

The staff at the Birger Sandzen will continue to work at the gallery during the renovation. But Michael said it was not feasible to keep the gallery open, in part because the open areas were needed to store art. All the artwork will remain onsite.