The First Recipient of IndieSpace’s Itty Bitty Mini Guaranteed Income Program
IndieSpace is excited to announce the first recipient of our Itty Bitty Mini Guaranteed Income Program, a groundbreaking 3-year pilot program designed to provide guaranteed income to NYC indie theater artists.
We are thrilled to share that Courtney Seyl has been selected by lottery as the first Itty Bitty Mini Guaranteed Income Program Recipient!
Introducing Courtney!
Courtney Seyl is a playwright, director, and stage manager based in Brooklyn, NY where they reside with their black cat, Toothless. They graduated from the University of Puget Sound with their BA in Theatre Arts and English. In the summer of 2018 they received training as a part of the Intiman Emerging Artist’s program in Seattle, WA. In 2021 they were accepted into the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive. They’ve taken classes with ESPA at Primary Stages and have worked with The Playground Experiment, Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, and The National Queer Theatre. Their play REVOLUTION premiered at The Tank theatre in 2021 and was nominated for 8 Off-Off Broadway awards and won for Best Actress in a New Play. Recent credits include: Mirrors by Kaitlin Gould, Today You Are a Man by Michael Witkes, and Little Egg, Big World by Rachel Leighson.
Program Overview
The Itty Bitty Mini Guaranteed Income Program is a new program that IndieSpace has developed over the past several years. We wanted to focus our work on an artist’s personal safety net, savings, and potential for retirement. As an organization that provides small emergency grants to our community, we see firsthand how one small emergency or loss of a paycheck is enough to destabilize the workers in our field. Our program aims to address the cushion, the savings, and safety nets for our community and to think about the funding cliff at the end of the Guaranteed Income program.
Recognizing the financial challenges that many independent theater artists face, this pilot program offers a monthly payment of $1,000 for three consecutive years. In addition to this consistent support, the program includes an annual $3,000 savings grant to help offset the funding cliff at the end of the three years and to provide indie artists with a much needed personal safety net. The recipient will also receive optional financial and business coaching and a savings grant.
This program underscores our belief in guaranteed income and unwavering commitment to supporting the creative community that makes New York City’s theater scene so vibrant.
Selection Process
As with all IndieSpace grants, we employed a lottery-based selection process with clearly defined eligibility criteria to ensure fairness and transparency. The lottery was open to indie theater artists who had applied for emergency funding (including our emergency fund, mental health grants, milk and eggs grants, etc.) in the last year and a half.
More than 900 artists were eligible for this lottery, showing the incredible need for additional funding and support.
This program has been created with scaling in mind. If you are part of an institution that may be interested in helping to fund this program, please contact us at hello@indiespace.org.
Why This Matters
IndieSpace joined the collective effort to Build a Base of Artists who Support Guaranteed Income, alongside Creatives Rebuild New York.
IndieSpace is committed to learning from this initiative, gathering insights, and refining our efforts to better serve indie theater artists in the future. By providing financial stability, we hope to support artists in focusing on their creative endeavors, contributing to a more dynamic and diverse theater landscape in New York City.