Arts Incubation

We believe in you.

What is arts incubation?

Since 2016, our mission has been to incubate unique, inclusive performing arts opportunities that create joy and community for a variety of experience levels.

Our goal at Empire Arts Collective is not only to offer fun, unique arts programming to the Sacramento region, but to act as a resource for others who are looking to do the same thing.

Through our incubation arm, we’ve been able to nurture developing artists and provide one-of-a-kind arts programming to the Sacramento region.

Resources for Performing Artists & Emerging Arts Organizations

Tiny Stage

Tiny Stage is a quarterly variety show designed to be an outlet for local performing artists to try out new material in front of a live, constructive audience.

Our Next Show is September 30th, 2023 at 8pm

Learn More

Pitch Fest

Pitch Fest is a contest for community members to pitch us their best creative project ideas. Winners receive funding and resources to make those ideas reality.

Fiscal Sponsorship

Empire Arts Collective serves as a fiscal sponsor to two fantastic organizations: Body Loyalty and Capital Dance Project.

Success Stories

As an adult, it can be really hard to find opportunities to participate in the arts. If you're not pursuing it as a career, there just aren't very many ways to stay involved in something you love. With Empire Arts, not only do you get to participate in creativity in a way that fulfills that love, you can also grow into an artist that creates the projects you've been dreaming about. And you can do it in a supportive environment with people who care as much as you do. Working with Empire Arts has returned the love of performing to me, developed my creativity, and given me a community.

Tresa Edmunds

I've been working with Empire Arts Collective since close to the beginning, though I only recently became a Board Member. They gave me the opportunity to design and run lights (and sometimes sound) on a semi-regular basis, which was something I hadn't been able to do since college. This enabled me to get back into the field where I am now employed full time as a Theatrical Electrician. Collaborating with EAC allowed me to retain, maintain, and hone some of the skills I learned in college during the gap of time from graduation until being hired full time in the field. As a Theatrical Electrician, some of my responsibilities are to aim and focus lighting fixtures; which I did periodically for EAC. The opportunity I appreciated the most was being able to design lighting for live performances rather than simply theoreticals.

Maria Crowell

New Arts Ventures for the Sacramento Area

Sacramento Pop Choir

Empire Pop Choir is our first incubated project to make the transition to become a fully independent organization.

Under the direction of Empire Co-Founder Emily Perez and Heather Waid, Empire Pop Choir was launched through Empire Arts Collective’s incubation program in 2019. Since then, it has partnered with hundreds of singers of all experience levels to put on unique performances which helped raise funds to incubate future projects.

Starting in 2023, Empire Pop Choir made the transition to become an independent organization and changed its name to “Sacramento Pop Choir”.

It is our hope that Empire Pop Choir will be the first of many projects that Empire incubates to serve our local arts community over the long term.

"Once More, with Feeling"

One of our community members came to us with a novel idea. What if we produced a live version of “Once More, with Feeling,” the cult favorite musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Well, not only did everyone involved have a blast, but it turned out to be a great success. In fact, it became so beloved that we continued to produce this show annually from 2017 to 2021.

This production enabled us to work with many new actors and designers just starting their careers and to mentor aspiring directors.

Never miss an update