The traditional art fair model is this: A management company gets several dozen galleries together inside a convention center, where dealers from all over the world showcase their latest art in booths. (Think trade fair, but with extraordinarily high-priced, museum-worthy merch.) It is a dizzying, overwhelming spectacle.

This week in Miami, countless fairs—including the big daddy of them all, Art Basel Miami Beach—will be peddling art trinkets big and small in a labyrinthine array of booths. Seven like-minded galleries (most of them from New York) have come together to offer an alternative. Rather than renting booths at Art Basel or another fair, they have taken over an arts district warehouse and have installed an exhibit that is a pleasure to look at. There are no booths. (Art from different galleries hangs together on the same walls.) Neither are there gallery employees badgering you with sales pitches. In one corner, a group of artists have created a commerce-free events zone that even includes a microscopic Brooklyn bar that offers beer on tap. (In the name of investigative journalism, I sampled several.)

While Seven, as the show is called, doesn't completely undo the art fair model (there's still plenty of stuff for sale), it does offer the viewer a respite from the commerce-focused experience of the traditional art fairs. Likewise, while doing side ventures is nothing new during arts fair season, this enterprise is an interesting experiment in making art fairs more D.I.Y.—and more accessible to the viewer. The extra space is a boon: the art has room to breathe, there are installations you can climb into, and, of course, there's free beer.

If you're in town for the fairs, this is an opportunity not just to shop for art—but to actually enjoy it, too.

Seven is on view through Sunday, December 5th in Wynwood, the Miami Arts District. Participating galleries include: Pierogi, Hales, Winkleman, Postmasters, PPOW, BravinLee and Ronald Feldman.