Mission

The Empress Theatre’s mission is to operate a world-class performing arts center that engages and serves a broad audience from throughout the City of Vallejo and the North Bay region.

The Empress Theatre achieves this mission through:

• Operating and maintaining an elegant and historic world-class performance venue operated by professional staff and consistently maintaining industry-standard quality benchmarks.
• Providing, at cost, state-of-the-art equipment and support for its resident companies and a broad range of other regional performance groups.
• Presenting artistic programming of the highest quality that serves diverse audiences and brings nationally and internationally-renowned artists to Vallejo.
• Providing vital arts education and community programming to serve the interests of a broad and diverse audience.

Mixed-Use Facility

The Empress Theatre is a mixed use performing arts center with a mission to enrich the lives of Vallejo residents and those in the surrounding communities by providing a much-needed and elegant home for performing arts and entertainment.  

This mixed-use facility is home to community theatre, concerts by local musicians, symphony, musical theatre and dance performances as well as providing a local venue in which to see touring performers of national and international stature and independent and foreign film.

Cultural and Economic Diversity

Called the most diverse city in America, providing an accessible performing arts center with cultural programming as diverse as Vallejo’s residents and which is also available for booking at nominal charge for community events is one of the guiding principles of the Empress Theatre operation.

Because of this, the theater’s business model relies heavily on an important advisory committee made up of arts professionals and community leaders from every major Vallejo ethnic community and performing arts discipline to advise on the direction and content of the programming at the theater.

This group’s task is to ensure that all programming accurately reflects the breadth of diversity, interests and economic realities of our community.  Our research indicates that this level of community involvement, support and input has not been a major component or focal point of any other community performing arts center’s operations and we’re proud to be the inclusionary model for the next generation of cultural facilities.

The Foundation’s Mission

Vallejo Community Arts Foundation is the operator of the Empress Theatre.  The Foundation is a non-profit public benefit corporation whose mission is to promote and enhance public awareness, appreciation and participation in community arts programs; to be responsible for the overall management and funding of designated community arts facilities; and to raise and disburse funds to cultural and arts programs and facilities.