
Overview
In partnership with the Howard Gilman Foundation, the New York City Small Theatres Fund is a two-year general operating support grant to New York City-based theatre companies with annual budgets below $250,000. The fund provides multi-year grant awards between $7,500-$10,000 each year.
Applicants to the NYC Small Theatres Fund are NOT required to be members of A.R.T./New York.
This grant aims to support a wide range of theatrical aesthetics, methods of production, and artistic communities throughout the five boroughs, engaging their artists and audiences in meaningful, exciting, and committed creation and production. We aim to fund a group of applicants who reflect the diversity of New York City theatre-making and increase opportunities for theatres and artists who have been historically under-resourced due to barriers associated with racial, economic, disability, gender, and/or sexual identity and/or geographic location.
Timeline
Application Opens: October 7, 2025 at 10am ET
Office Hours: October 7 - November 21, 2025
Application Closes: November 25, 2025 at 5pm ET
Notifications for Round 1: March 2026
New for Fall 2025
A.R.T./New York is participating in the use of New York Common Application Questions!
In 2022, The New York Grantmakers in the Arts (NYGIA) formed a Common Application Committee from a variety of different funding institutions (including public, private, corporate, family, and intermediary grantmakers) who met regularly until 2025. The mission of the committee was to identify and suggest commonalities that could streamline the application experience for NYC artists and arts organizations.
The committee drafted a full set of common application narrative questions to be integrated into any grant application as well as explanatory language about the common application project.
A.R.T./New York is pleased to take part in the launch of this exciting new initiative. Several questions in our applications this upcoming year will be taken from the recommended common questions. You will know they are a common application narrative question if you see the following:
*Every question with an asterisk was designed by the New York Grantmakers in the Arts' Common Application Committee. By standardizing question language across applications, this effort seeks to reduce the amount of time New York artists and arts organizations spend on grant proposals. If you encounter one of these questions on another funder's application, you are encouraged to cut and paste the same answer. This work is based on the efforts of the Common Application for the Arts - Bay Area.
Grant Panels
The grants administered by A.R.T./New York are adjudicated by peer panels of New York-based arts administrators, artists, and theatre-makers. If you know someone who would make a great panelist, nominate them. You can also nominate yourself!

Accessibility
A.R.T./New York is committed to making our grantmaking and funding programs accessible to disabled theatre-makers, artists, and administrators. Our Application Guide and Tips & Tricks/FAQ documents are available in large print. Office hours and virtual information sessions offer automatic captioning through Zoom and Google. Additional accommodations, including ASL interpretation, live captioning, audio description, etc., are available upon request. Please submit requests to Ashley Hicks at [email protected] at least five business days in advance.
Narrative questions can be submitted in writing or by submitting an audio or video file of a company member answering the questions. If you need additional support in applying to any of A.R.T./New York's grant programs, please contact Erica Wray Barnes at [email protected].
Featured Image In Header: New York City Small Theatres Fund Recipient Hit the Lights! ISLA. PC: Rebecca J. Michaelson
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