The Little Venue That Could
A New Grant Program for Indie Theater and Dance Performance Venues
We are excited to announce the launch of The Little Venue That Could program, with generous support from the Howard Gilman Foundation. This new program will award two-year $10,000 grants to NYC-based performance venues with annual budgets under $750,000.
The deadline for applications was Monday, June 26, 11:59pm EST.
The Little Venue That Could program grants will be $10,000 per year, for two consecutive fiscal years, and can be used to pay staff, rent, utilities, debt or whatever the venue deems appropriate to help them keep their doors open and thrive. A minimum of 10 grants, to 10 venues, will be given. Each grantee will also be automatically registered in IndieSpace’s FREE Advisory and Consulting program, providing access to experts and information throughout the lifetime of their space operation.
The Little Venue That Could program was created to provide unrestricted general operating support to New York City-based indie theater and dance performance venues with expense budgets under $750,000. Due to size, fiscal structure, staffing arrangements, and unconventional leasing and ownership structures, these homes for artists are most often excluded from city, state, and federal funding and may not meet financial thresholds or the stated priorities of private foundations in order to get significant support. Despite this historical absence of consistent financial support and the growing affordability crisis in NYC, small-budget indie theater and dance venues continue to play a critical role in the creative ecosystem by providing artists with affordable performance and presenting space.
The application closed on Monday, June 26.
Eligible applicants must be located in the five boroughs of NYC; have an expense budget of $750k or less in the last fiscal year, have been in operation for at least two years, operate at least one performance space with less than 99 seats; and have an active lease or deed. Current annual Howard Gilman Foundation grantees are not eligible for this grant. Venues who have received funding from IndieSpace through any of our other funding programs are still eligible to apply.
In order to acknowledge the labor of submitting an application, IndieSpace has also allotted a total of $5,000 to be split and distributed among all eligible and complete applications.
Three virtual open houses and one in person open house will be hosted for applicants to learn more about the process and to ask questions. For personalized one-on-one application support or to learn more about the application, eligibility, or any aspect of the program, please visit this page on our website, or email hello@indiespace.org.
In alignment with our values of non merit based grant making and access for everyone, IndieSpace uses a lottery system for a majority of our funding programs. At times, a weighted system is implemented for organizations or artists that meet certain criteria that have been prioritized for a specific grant program, for example, geography, demography, need, etc. The Little Venue That Could will be using a weighted system, but ALL eligible applicants will be entered into the lottery, regardless of weight distribution. Priority in weights will be given to venues who are located in the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island; venues who were established by, for and are serving Black, Indigenous, people of color, d/Deaf, disabled, transgender/gender non-conforming/non-binary and immigrant artists; and who demonstrate values driven work through community impact, diversity, equity and inclusion, paying arts workers, and accessibility. Some application weights will be determined by a review committee of six indie artists and venue operators who have a demonstrated commitment to serving indie artists, represent the demography of NYC, and have an ongoing relationship to IndieSpace.
This iteration of The Little Venue That Could program has been generously funded by the Howard Gilman Foundation and is administered by IndieSpace staff.