Empire Arts Collective, operating as Spectrum Stage, is a Sacramento-based nonprofit arts organization and public venue dedicated to inclusive, artist-driven, community-centered performing arts.
Founded in 2016 as an arts collective, we’ve grown into a working creative space where people learn, experiment, play, and perform in the same place. Artists build their practice, relationships, and bodies of work here, while audiences return often enough to build real familiarity. Artists and community members grow together over time.
We carve out and protect space for artists and stories often overlooked by traditional institutions, operating as an ongoing creative home rather than a one-off themed event or seasonal spotlight. We’re building a place where performance feels immediate, human, and connected to the people in the room.
Spectrum Stage serves the Sacramento community with a focus on artists and audiences who haven’t always had access to mainstream arts spaces.
We prioritize stories from LGBTQ+, BIPOC, disabled artists, women, and others who rarely see their experiences centered on traditional stages. The work presented reflects a wide range of lived experiences and creative approaches so the work resembles the community around it.
Creative joy is a form of community resilience. Our programs offer visibility, belonging, and shared meaning at a time when many marginalized community members are experiencing isolation, forced silence, exclusion, fear, and ongoing social stress.
We believe people connect more deeply when they recognize themselves in the work being shared. Performing arts can build empathy, spark conversation, and create lasting relationships between strangers.
We value accessibility, collaboration, creative risk-taking, and sustained participation. We believe artists grow through repetition and trust, and audiences return when they feel invited rather than instructed.
There isn’t just one way to be part of Spectrum Stage. People learn, create, perform, and gather here, often moving between roles over time.
Main Stage
We present contemporary performing arts, including selected plays, original works, interdisciplinary projects, and co-produced performances with community partners. The goal is not just presentation, but engagement. Performances that feel alive in the room and worth talking about afterward.
Education
Workshops in theatrical design and related disciplines give artists tools to develop skills and confidence in a supportive environment.
New Works Foundry
The New Works Foundry supports experimental, devised, and developing work by providing rehearsal space, feedback opportunities, and low-pressure presentations. Artists can test ideas, refine material, and collaborate as projects take shape, with some works advancing to fully supported public runs on the Spectrum Stage.
Community Events
Meetups, craft nights, readings, discussions, and community-centered events create space for audiences and artists alike to meet, play together, laugh, bond, reflect, and build relationships beyond the performance itself.
Across all programs, artists and audiences can move between participation and observation, creating a continuous cultural space rather than isolated events.
Our mission: To foster a collaborative and inclusive environment for artists to learn, create, share, and refine their work, inspiring joy and building community through innovative opportunities.
1) Expand Free & Discount Access Programs ($3k)
We believe creative experiences should remain accessible regardless of financial barriers. Your donation supports free and reduced-price performances and low-cost workshops, ensuring community members can participate consistently. Your gift helps cover participation costs for those needing financial support, keeps performances and classes welcoming and inclusive, and allows artists to share work with audiences who might otherwise be unable to attend.
2) Fund Teaching Artists & Ongoing Training ($4k)
Learning thrives when artists can study regularly with experienced mentors. This fund supports instructors leading workshops in performance and design disciplines, allowing community members to build skills over time while ensuring teaching artists are fairly compensated. Your donation expands the range of classes we can offer and strengthens the creative ecosystem that sustains our productions and projects.
3) Make Our Creative Space Work for Artists ($3k)
A creative venue must function as rehearsal studio, classroom, and gathering place all week long. This goal funds essential improvements that make the space more usable and inspiring for artists and facilitators. Your gift supports collaborative planning tools, adaptable seating and workspace configurations, and flexible storage that keeps the room ready for performances, workshops, and community events.
4) Stage and Production Equipment Upgrades ($15k)
We are continuing to transform the space into a fully supported performance environment. Your donation helps improve staging, lighting, and sound so artists can present meaningful work with clarity and confidence. These upgrades strengthen rehearsals, workshops, and performances while creating a reliable home for ongoing creative projects.
Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) is part of our core principles. Our organization recognizes the reality that cultural biases and systemic racism impact communities of color in the Sacramento area, and beyond, and it is part of our ongoing goals to dismantle those systems through racially equitable practices.
We look for creative ways to rethink systems and policies to better serve and support communities of color whenever possible and are in an ongoing process of examining and questioning the practices that have been traditionally deemed “professional,” which have been part of the oppression of marginalized communities, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
As we create our events, programs, and collective projects, we continuously strive to provide an inclusive, accessible environment with a low barrier to entry for anyone interested in experiencing the beauty and joy of the performing arts.
We hope to continue and expand our focus on creating works that are open and welcoming to adults of every age, ethnicity, race, color, religious background, nationality, ability, gender identity, and sexual identity.
Organization name
Spectrum Stage
other names
Empire Arts Collective
2016
Mission Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities
Operating Budget
$0-$50,000
Organization Need
Funding: Unrestricted
Local Counties Served
Sacramento
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
2424 Castro WayPlacer County, CA, US
Sacramento County, CA, US
Yolo County, CA, US