A $350,000 gift from a Northwestern alumna will be used to construct a combination digital gallery and classroom in the expanded Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, administrators announced Wednesday.

The gift from Ellen Philips Katz, Weinberg ’70, and her husband, Howard C. Katz, provides funding for the museum’s first interactive gallery.

“This will allow us to establish a dedicated space for art and technology,” said Debora Wood, assistant curator of the Block Museum, which is under construction.

As a gallery, the 500 square-foot space will boast multimedia and interactive capabilities.

Multiple T3 connections, some of the fastest links to the Internet, will enable the gallery to show live video from the World Wide Web.

As a classroom, the Katz gallery will seat 40. Wood said instructors can use the room’s video and data projector to enhance lectures and bring in information from the Internet.

Wood said the dual-purpose space is rare in the Chicago area.

The Block Museum, closed for renovation, will reopen Sep. 23. The first artist to exhibit in the classroom-gallery will be NU Music School alumnus Shawn Decker, who will exhibit a sound installation with motorized constructions from Sept. 23 to Dec. 10.