Some say the best part of Art Week is the parties that take place over Art Weekend. Pulse, Fountain and many other satellite shows are hosting events. The Winkelman gallery and the Humble Arts Foundation offer two alternatives to the art glut.

Amelia Bauer, Naomi Harris, Alison Malone, S. Billie Mandle, Paula McCartney, Heather Rasmussen Robin Schwartz, and Ann Woo are some of the women represented in the 31 Women in Art Photography show currently up at the Affirmation Arts Center on West 37th Street. This is the second time the Humble Arts Foundation has put on a show dedicated to female photographers. The show is co-curated by Charlotte Cotton and Jon Feinstein. Feinstein says the show is a play on the  top 30 photographers to watch list that Photo District News puts out every year. He says the focus on women is in response to the disparity between the number of female MFA graduates and the number of women represented by blue chip galleries. 

The white walls at the Winkleman Gallery have been replaced with blackboards. Artists Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida have turned the gallery into a "think tank," where artists, critics, academics, dealers, and collectors come together for a month of conversations about the commercial art market and potential alternatives to it. If you can't make it for #class in person you can participate online. You can also watch via live web cam.

Some of the sessions have titles like "The System Doesn't Work."  Still, the organizers aren't fighting the system entirely. Both Dalton and Powhida have work for sale and, according to the WSJ, it's selling. One collector even twitted his Powhida purchase. And the pair brought #class to Pulse for a session. Listen to the audio clip to hear what happened.

#class runs until March 20th.