The National Museum of American History has announced it will be closing at the end of this summer for approximately 2 years to undergo major renovations, which will include architectural and structural improvements. The most obvious aesthetic change visitors will notice when the museum reopens will likely be a new, special gallery to house the Star-Spangled Banner. From the press release:

An abstract flag, made of lightweight, reflective polycarbonate and approximately 40 feet long and up to 19 feet high will soar above the entrance to the new Star-Spangled Banner gallery and will become the new central focal point of the second floor where more than two-thirds of the museum’s visitors enter. Visitors to the flag gallery will experience the 30 by-34 foot wool and cotton Star-Spangled Banner in a new setting with floor-to-ceiling glass windows designed to evoke the “dawn’s early light” in which Francis Scott Key saw the flag, still flying above Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor in 1814.

We’re all for the Star-Spangled Banner project, which has been responsible for the conservation of the famous flag since 1998. But let’s just hope museum director Brent Glass spares us the certain torture that would be involved if the new gallery also includes a looped audio feature. Think of the poor security guards and other museum employees being forced to listen to our national anthem over and over and over and over again. The horror.