Updates to IndieSpace’s Mental Health Grant Program
The IndieSpace Mental Health Grant awards individual artists with $500 grants to use toward therapy, medication, meditation classes, and any other mental health-related costs.
It is our hope that by providing this financial resource, we can help remove barriers that prevent artists from seeking and receiving the care, support, and information they need to prioritize their mental health.
In the lifetime of this program, we have disbursed 1,601 Mental Health Microgrants ($800,500).
Information for Artists
In January 2026, we paused the mental health grant to restructure it and ensure it best met the needs of applicants. Before pausing the program, we provided a mental health grant to 114 eligible artists who applied before January 1, 2026, and were waiting for a grant. This means that EVERY single artist who applied for a grant in 2025 and was found eligible received at least one $500 grant.
To support equitable access to funding, our lottery system now includes a few new built-in practices designed to balance fairness, transparency, and care for our community over time. Below is an outline of the changes we made to the program and why we made them.
Wait-Time Boost
Applicants will receive a one point increase in their lottery weight for each month their application rolls over. This means that if your application has rolled over across multiple months, your chances of being selected will be higher than folks who have only rolled over one month. Our goal is to make sure that no one is left waiting indefinitely or going long periods without critical mental health needs being met.
You do not need to reapply to receive this benefit; your application will automatically remain active and carry forward each month until you are selected.
Cooldown Period
After receiving a Mental Health Grant, applicants are asked to wait a period of three months before reapplying. This allows us to make space for others who are still waiting to receive support.
Maximum number of grants per year
Applicants will be able to receive the Mental Health Grant no more than twice in a calendar year. Once you have received it twice, any subsequent applications will be declined. You can apply again in the following year.
Additions to the Submittable Form
IndieSpace uses Submittable for our grant applications. Some of the updates you can expect to see in Submittable include a more streamlined and user-friendly application experience, as well as a few additional application questions to help us better understand how our programs are reaching the community and to support future funding efforts. These questions do NOT affect your eligibility or your lottery weight!
Together, these practices will help us distribute funds as thoughtfully and equitably as possible, ensuring that this grant reaches as many artists in our community as we can.
Information for Funders
For many indie performing artists, mental health care isn’t only expensive, it is inconsistent. Artists are navigating a healthcare system that was never designed for the way they work. Their income is often project-based, short-term, and unpredictable, making employer-sponsored health insurance rare and continuity of care difficult to maintain.
We hear this again and again from our community: the hardest part isn’t finding care, it’s staying connected to it. Even when artists do have access to care, high out-of-pocket costs for mental health support and gaps between jobs can interrupt treatment at the moments it’s needed most. A missed session turns into a gap, a gap turns into starting over, and over time, that cycle takes its own toll.
This is why we created the Mental Health Grant Program. It helps bridge those gaps. It creates a moment of stability in an otherwise unpredictable system. And it ensures that artists, who give so much of themselves to their work, our communities, and our city, have a bit of support to find and pay for the care they deserve.
Each month, we consistently receive far more applications than we have funding to support.
If you or your organization are in a position to help expand this program, we invite you to join us. Additional funding allows us to help more artists, reduce wait times, and ensure that critical care is not delayed.