When I moved here, I discovered the Studio Crawl and was pleasantly surprised to learn from the Aggaziz Art Council that our area has more artists per capita than Chicago. I love the studio crawl because so much of the art is of high quality and it reasonably priced, if compared with art in larger cities. It is worth coming to Fargo in October just for the crawl. And when people do, they stay overnight and spend 3x as much as a day trip visitor spends, including receipts for hotel, meals, gas and of course, shopping.

There are plenty of people who would love to go to the crawl but can not make the it in October, a busy time when the crops are coming in. And I understand that the studio crawl is a lot of work for the artists. But if our city can make it worth their while to expand it, (perhaps by paying for the artist's second application fee in a year?) then a second crawl in the city could both double the receipts and such positive externalities of the crawl while reinforcing the image of Fargo as a hip, creative city.