FARGO – North Dakota State University academics put Fargo City Commissioner Tony Gehrig in the hot seat Tuesday by challenging Gehrig's stance against public funding for the arts.

Gehrig and Dayna Del Val, executive director of The Arts Partnership, presented opposing viewpoints on the subject Tuesday afternoon to an audience of about 25 retired and current university staff and faculty at NDSU's Memorial Union.

Most of the group was adamantly opposed to Gehrig's position, which is that funding for the arts is not the responsibility of local government.

"The role of local government is to provide anything that the private sector can't or won't do. That doesn't mean you should automatically do it. You should consider it then at that point," he said. "Art has been popular in Fargo for a long time. It has thrived without government paying for it, and it will continue to do so without its funding."

About $109,000 of Fargo's $94 million budget for 2016 is for the arts, Del Val said.

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Del Val argued that art attracts skilled workers and boosts the local economy, in addition to its immeasurable value.

"The few dollars that go into the arts funding more than pay the public back," she said.

Gehrig said he agreed that art is important in building a vibrant community. He recently went to the opera with friends, and said that's how art should be financially supported. But he would prefer that the government help by providing space-for example, space in downtown Fargo for the privately funded painted bison-rather than money.

Del Val said arts organizations often need public buy-in to generate foundation funding.

For example, Theatre B has received just over $35,000 from the city since 2005, but has leveraged that support to secure more than $200,000 from regional and federal foundations, she said.

If city funding for the arts went away, a private donor might replace the estimated $5,000 that Theatre B receives annually, "but it's extremely unlikely that anyone would be privately giving at the level the foundations have given," Del Val said. "It's the larger funding that has helped Theatre B move to entirely new levels of production and operation."

The speeches were followed by a lively question-and-answer session, during which the audience challenged Gehrig on many points.

"Hang on, we're going to take turns here," organizer Davis Cope said at one point. Cope is an associate professor of math at the university and is in charge of the seminar series.

"Paying for a ticket to go see the opera is not giving $5,000 for the opera to function," said Natalie Smith Carlson, a lecturer in English and Women's and Gender Studies. "Just saying, 'Well, I go to public events. I pay my $30 or whatever. I'm supporting privately.' That isn't the same amount of money you were talking about earlier."

"I disagree," Gehrig said. "If you have enough individuals who find the ballet or the opera or whatever else important, they'll go."

"But that's revenue after it's already been produced, and we're talking about the revenue to produce it," Smith Carlson said.

"I think I disagree," Gehrig said again. In response to another comment, he said, "We all agree that people want more and more art. It's a quality-of-life thing. And if we all agree on that, then why are we subsidizing something that's popular?"

This article has been altered from when it was first published to clarify Tony Gehrig's position on the role of local government. These two sentences were added: "That doesn't mean you should automatically do it. You should consider it then at that point."