Sacramento is known for its modern, emerging culture and was even named the fourth most “hipster city” in the United States in a 2016 survey.
Museums
The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest public art museum in the western United States and has one of the largest public art collections in the country.
Sacramento is home to 32 museums, including several major museums. The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest public art museum west of the Mississippi River. In 2010, the museum completed an expansion that tripled its size to more than 145,000 square feet of exhibition space.
Also of interest is the Governor’s Mansion State Historic Park, a large Victorian mansion that has been home to 14 California governors. The Leland Stanford Mansion, which was fully restored in 2006, serves as the official state address for diplomatic and business receptions. Public tours are available. The California Museum of History, Women and the Arts, which houses the California Hall of Fame, is a cultural site. The California State Capitol is home to the California State Capitol Museum, which offers free tours of the historic chambers and meeting rooms of the Capitol, as well as a museum that houses several historical artifacts.
The California Automobile Museum, south of Old Sacramento, showcases automotive history and vehicles from 1880 to 2006 and is the oldest nonprofit automotive museum in the West. McClellan Air Force Base is home to the California Air and Space Museum, which displays more than 40 civilian and military aircraft and 50 historic jet engines. Additionally, the Sacramento History Museum in the heart of Old Sacramento focuses on Sacramento’s history from the region’s pre-Gold Rush history to the present day. In 2021, the Museum of Science and Curiosity (MOSAC) opened in the restored historic Matsui Waterfront Power Plant building.
Sacramento hosts Museum Day every year, when 26 museums in the greater Sacramento area offer free admission. In 2009, Museum Day in Sacramento attracted more than 80,000 people, the largest number the event has ever attracted. Sacramento Museum Day is celebrated every year on the first Saturday in February.
Performing arts
There are several large theater venues in Sacramento. The Sacramento Convention Center Complex operates both the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center and the Memorial Auditorium. The H Street Theater complex consists of the Wells Fargo Pavilion, built in 2003 on the foundation of an old music circus, the McClatchy Main Stage, and the Pollock Stage, originally built as a television studio and renovated at the same time as the pavilion was built. These smaller venues seat 300 and 90, allowing for a more intimate presentation than the 2,300-seat pavilion. The Eagle Theater in Old Sacramento is a reconstruction of the oldest permanent theater in California, and it hosts several performances throughout the year. The newest facility in the city, the Sophia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts, consists of the 365-seat Sutter Children’s Theater and the 250-seat main stage.
Professional theater is represented in Sacramento by several companies. Broadway Sacramento and its local summer theater, Broadway at Music Circus, attract many directors, performers and artists from New York and Los Angeles to work alongside a large local staff at the Wells Fargo Pavilion. Throughout the fall, winter and spring seasons, Broadway Sacramento provides bus and truck tours to the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center. As a resident of the H Street Theater Complex for the remainder of the year (September through May), Sacramento Theater Company is preparing to celebrate its 75th season, which will begin in the fall of 2019.
The Sacramento area has one of the largest collections of community theaters in California. Some of them include Thistle Dew Dessert Theatre and Playwrights Workshop, Davis Musical Theatre Co., El Dorado Musical Theatre, Runaway Stage Productions, River City Theatre Company, Flying Monkey Productions, The Actor’s Theatre, KOLT Run Productions, Kookaburra Productions, Big Idea Theatre, Celebration Arts, Lambda Player, Light Opera Theatre of Sacramento, Synergy Stage, and the historic Eagle Theatre. The Sacramento Shakespeare Festival offers entertainment under the stars every summer in William Land Park. Many of these theaters compete annually for the Elly Awards, which are overseen by The Sacramento Area Regional Theater Alliance or SARTA.
