Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery

Beautiful museum - small but packed with really lovely works of art by Swedish born American Landscape artist, Birger Sandzén. The museum is located in the cute town of Lindsborg, Kansas, and was settled by Swedish immigrants. It is on the way from Texas to Colorado. This gem of a museum is worth a stop if you love post impressionist style paintings and woodcuts and linocuts! Also, very friend staff!

Visiting Sandzen Gallery was a wonderful treat for us during our one day in Lindsborg. I was thrilled to get to the Svensk Hyllningsfest this year, the biennial Swedish festival that this town embraces. During a break from the main happenings downtown, we walked to Bethany College on recommendation by locals to check out this gallery.The front room features wood carvings, mostly from local artists. Inside the first gallery room were many magnificent Sandzen works on display. I learned that the artist was from Sweden, and made his way to Lindsborg, KS (known as Little Sweden) after reading a book by the founding college president. He spent his whole career at Bethany College as an art professor, turning down many other offers at places like University of Michigan. He was clearly well-traveled, based on the locations of his paintings. The side halls and back room featured other artists, many of whom studied under Sandzen. It was a real treat. The front room was being set up for a 50th class reunion, and a grand piano was on one side. Of course when I opened my google app while inside I saw the esteemed pianist from KSU, my friend Dr. Dobrzanski, would be performing in the gallery in November! How cool is that? I would recommend a visit if you are ever in this area of Kansas!

My husband and I toured this gallery back in 2003. There is no entrance fee, but donations help keep it open.Here's some info from the web site:Birger Sandzén was born in Blidsberg, Sweden, on February 5, 1871. At the age of twenty-three, after having read a book by the founder of Bethany College, Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, he came to Lindsborg, Kansas, to join the Bethany College faculty, intending to make a two or three years' sojourn in America and Mexico. Sandzén liked his new home so much that, except for two trips to Mexico and three to Europe, he remained in the United States the rest of his life, most of those sixty years being spent in Lindsborg. He died on June 19, 1954, at the age of eighty-three. His work is mostly landscape. Since I'm not skilled in the language of art critiquing, I don't know how to technically describe his paintings. They seem to be big, bold strokes with lots of color...kinda my style!You can make either a short visit, or take a couple hours slowly absorbing the details of his paintings.