Photos: Inside the IndieSpace Anniversary Celebration At Culture Lab LIC: A Night of Art, Music, and Community

On Wednesday, June 28th IndieSpace, an organization established to disrupt the ongoing displacement of small theaters and to create a new model for equitable funding for the indie theater community, celebrated their first year as a combined organization with the Indie Theater Fund at Culture Lab LIC (5-25 46th Ave, Queens NY, 11101). The evening featured music from the Brass Queens, artists from The Muse, a flash tattoo artist, a crowd-sourced music playlist, artist Scooter LaForge creating a live community collage commemorating IndieSpace’s ‘Paper’ Anniversary, and print-making, party games, and lovely people celebrating indie theater.

See photos below!

IndieSpace was established in 2016 to disrupt the ongoing displacement of small theaters and to address systemic inequities in NYC real estate. In 2022, it merged with Indie Theater Fund, an organization focused on a new model for equitable funding for the indie theater community. By contributing a nickel per ticket from their shows to a pot of money for funding, the indie theater community could create a method of self-sustainability and could rethink philanthropy and the process of grant making. Through radically transparent and equitable grants, community resources and advocacy, the Fund supported hundreds of indie theater companies and thousands of individual artists.  

Since its founding, IndieSpace has: consulted with 70+ venues making real estate decisions, including The Tank, FRIGID New York, The Chain, The Wild Project, Wooster Group, and Classical Theater of Harlem; helped 18 organizations sign new leases; saved seven theaters from being closed or repurposed; created four real estate operation partnerships; walked one venue through the purchase of their new home. During Covid, IndieSpace supported over 50 venues navigating their leases by helping them stay open, and also provided over $1.5M in relief grants to the indie theater community. In 2023 IndieSpace opened the West Village Rehearsal Co-Op with HERE Arts Center, New Ohio and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. This 99-year lease for $1 per year will serve over 1,500 artists per year. For service to the community, IndieSpace received the Ellen Stewart Award and a citation from the City Council of New York www.indiespace.org

Photo credit: Jesse Kornbluth