The Little Venue That Could 2026 Grant Recipients

We are thrilled to announce a second cohort of recipients for The Little Venue That Could Grant Program.

Thanks to generous funding from an anonymous donor, IndieSpace is able to award 17 grants to NYC-based performance venues with annual budgets less than $500,000. The grant provides venues with unrestricted grants of $10,000 per year, for two consecutive fiscal years, professional development opportunities (valued at $5,000), and access to IndieSpace’s Advisory and Consulting program.

In 2023 and 2025, IndieSpace partnered with The Howard Gilman Foundation to award grants through The Little Venue That Could. We are so thrilled to be able to expand this program with new philanthropic support.

A weighted lottery system was used to determine grantees. 

The following venues will receive grants: 

• 3AM Theatre

• Court Square Theater

• Dancing Crane Georgian Cultural Center

• Ecuadorian American Cultural Center

• Life World

• Modega

• Montez Press Radio

• MOtiVE Brooklyn

• New Dance Alliance

• Purgatory

• Spotlight Studios, The Staten Island Playhouse

• The Makers Space

• The New Stage Performance Space

• The RAT NYC

• The Waterfront Museum & Showboat Barge

• Theaterlab

• WOW Cafe Theater

Priority was given to venues located in the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island; venues whose NEA funding was withdrawn or terminated; venues who were established by, for, and are serving historically excluded artists; and who demonstrate values driven work through community impact, board and staff diversity, and accessibility. All applicants were then entered into a random lottery. The program received 62 applications.

The Little Venue That Could is one part of IndieSpace’s broader commitment to strengthening the physical infrastructure that makes New York City’s indie performing arts community possible. Through our real estate work, we help artists and organizations navigate leases, find and secure space, negotiate with landlords, and explore long-term strategies for stability. 

Again and again, we hear the same challenge: even the most beloved community venues are operating with limited resources while facing rising costs, uncertain funding, and increasing pressure from the real estate market.

These grants provide flexible support that venues can use where it is needed most, helping them remain open, continue serving artists and audiences, and preserve the cultural spaces that are essential to New York City’s creative ecosystem.

We would like to thank our Little Venue That Could Review Committee. These individuals helped to read, review, and score all applications. 

• Azure Osborne-Lee (Board Secretary of JACK)

• Carrie Blake (Research & Planning Consultant for the Arts)

• Christine Bruno (Disability Inclusion Consultant)

• Karesia Batan (Executive Director of Queensboro Dance Festival)

• Maya Quetzali Gonzalez (former Grants Manager for the MAP Fund)

• Sándie Luna (Executive Director of ID Studio Theater)

IndieSpace also thanks Alejandra Duque Cifuentes of ADC Consulting for her guidance with the original formation of this program in 2023.

We are grateful to everyone who shared The Little Venue That Could throughout the NYC arts community.