As an alternative supplement to the dozens of openings this week in commercial galleries around the city, the twice a year opportunity to visit two important MFA programs happens tonight — at Hunter College tonight (6-10pm Friday 16 November W. 41 street, 450, b/w 9 & 10 avenue) and Columbia University on Saturday (2-430pm 17 November 632 W 125th st, 4-6pm at 612 W 115th st, 6-8pm at 310 Dodge Hall on 2960 Broadway at W. 116th).

The International Studio and Curatorial Program of New York opens its doors as well this weekend, giving art spectators a chance to visit the studios of some 31 international artists working across media and currently completing their residencies at the ISCP. (Opening Recetion 7-9pm Friday 16 November, 12-6pm Saturday 17 November, 12-6pm Sunday 18 November, 2-8pm Monday 19 November at the ISCP, 323 WEST 39th ST, 6th, 7th, and 8th floors)

This weekend offers a chance to see Tony Conrad's The Flicker (1966), one of the foundational works of American structural film. Other 70s works by Conrad will be presented, including Straight and Narrow (1970), a black and white film with hallucinatory color inducing effects, and Film Feedback, an experiment in real-time film processing and re-photography. The three works comprise a suite of historic minimal, and quite challenging, American avant-garde cinema. (6pm Sunday 18 November 32 2nd Ave at E. 2nd St., $8).

Performance artist Karen Finley gives a tour of Nation Building, her new show of drawings, installation, and video works currently on view at Alexander Gray Associates in Chelsea this Saturday. Finley's show, among other things, explores an interesting set of imagined Freudian underpinning to the subconcious lives of the executive policy makers. (4pm Saturday 17 November, 526 W 26 St #1019)