Undergraduate art students now have another gallery where they can hang their works.

The Patterson Undergraduate Gallery will officially open its doors to the art world at 4 p.m. today. The first show, "Seven Disciplines," will showcase the seven areas of art -- photography, painting and drawing, graphic design, printmaking, ceramics, metals and sculpture. Each showpiece was selected by the department heads of each discipline.

The gallery was created by and for art students solely to showcase their work. Exhibits will change every two weeks, said Emanuel Pangilinan (junior-painting). Students must first submit a proposal to a four-person student committee for review to get a show, added Pangilinan, a committee member.

The idea for the gallery came about during renovations of the Patterson Building. A corridor gallery leading into the main offices was added when the second and third floors were refinished, said Jim Stephenson, director of the School of Visual Arts.

As for the space itself, Pangilinan described it as "excellent." It has all white, nine-foot ceilings with track lighting, he said, adding that the space has lots of angles, rather than just being square.

Stephenson said he selected the committee members.

"I picked students I knew just for this semester," he said. "They will make a recommendation about what kind of committee we'll have in the future."

The committee wants the gallery to become prestigious, said committee member Laurie Riccadonna (junior-painting). Students should have a few works to show the committee to be considered for an exhibition, she added.

"It won't be hard to get work exhibited, but you have to have a body of work," Riccadonna said.

Some art students are excited that they have a new space available to them. But Robert MacIntyre (junior-sculpture) said not enough people know about the new opportunity.

"As it is, no one really shows their work anywhere," MacIntyre said. "No one really gets to see each other's works. I think everybody's really unaware of what everybody's doing."