By Tania Blanich
Executive Director, The Arts Partnership
On Monday, September 30, the Fargo City Commission will consider additional cuts to the 2025 budget of “non-essential” services, including The Arts Partnership.
The $90,000 city investment, combined with funding from Moorhead and West Fargo, enables The Arts Partnership to provide $92,000 in grants to local arts organizations and to provide them with additional, non-monetary resources.
While the cut certainly impacts how TAP might operate in the future, what concerns us most is the damage that it will cause to the entire sector.
On Friday, Sept. 27, I sent Mayor Mahoney and the four Commissioners the following brief email:
The Arts Partnership has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the City of Fargo – one that has greatly benefited our community. I certainly empathize with the difficult job facing you regarding the budget. The Commission has tough decisions to make.
The investment that the City of Fargo has made in the arts has resulted in a vibrant arts-and-culture sector that makes our city a great place to live and work. The arts contribute to workforce attraction and retention and attract visitors to our community.
The City gets a lot of bang for its buck in supporting the arts. The $90,000 investment returned just under $800,000 in local tax revenue in FY22.* That’s a 9 times return on investment.
Cutting funding to The Arts Partnership will impact the 35 or so arts organizations that count on applying to our City Arts Partnership grants each year. It will impact the nearly 2,000 people who work in the nonprofit arts sector – and who pay income and property taxes. And it will impact the million audience members served by the arts annually, about 48% of whom are Fargo residents who attend multiple art events in a year.
Again, we know you have some tough decisions to make, but we hope you will understand and honor the value that the arts bring to our community – fiscally and socially.
* Based on the recent Arts and Economic Prosperity Study 6, a national study.
Proposed cuts (source: KVRR)
- $175,000 from Downtown Community Partnership
- $105,000 from Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation
- $30,000 from Indigenous Association
- $30,000 from the city’s Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. events
- $90,000 from Arts Partnership
- $50,000 from Social Services
- $50,000 from Emerging Prairie
- $41,200 from YouthWorks
- $7,500 from Workforce Academy
- $10,00 from other services
Keeping you informed
We won’t know more until the city commission meets on Monday, September 30. We’d love to have your presence and support at Monday’s meeting at 5 p.m. at Fargo City Hall.
As your local arts council, we will continue to support and advocate for the local arts sector and will keep you informed as we know more.
Meanwhile, I and the Arts Partnership Board of Directors encourage you to email City of Fargo leaders and let them know how important art is to cultivating community. Thank you.
