With a recent shakeup in leadership, dwindling funds and mounting financial woes, the local Black theatre company Celebration Arts could shut its doors in early 2026. The $700,000 state grant that had been paying staff salaries has ended, pushing the venerable company to the brink of closure.

Celebration Arts landed the grant in 2022, but newly appointed Executive Artistic Director Erinn Anova says they didn’t actually get the money until 2024. The grant was specifically for the salaries, productions and equipment, and couldn’t be used for other needs, although there were many.

Staff shrank from five to one full-time employee: Anova, who returned to Sacramento and Celebration Arts in 2024 and had been serving as executive director until Artist Director James Ellison III’s abrupt resignation in October. Ellison’s departure came after just one season following his taking the helm from aging founder, James Wheatley.

Anova says board members were ready to “sunset” the pioneering theatre company at its Nov. 10 board meeting.

“We were left with a board that was pretty adamant that there was no hope for our future,” she says.

Anova admits she was ready for a curtain call, but says she since has set her sights on the ultimate encore.

“I was pretty distraught,” she says. “I thought, ‘There’s nothing I can do.’ Then someone got in my ear and [said] ‘Oh no, you’ve got to fight. Celebration Arts is worth fighting for.’”

Celebration Arts was founded by Wheatley in 1976 and incorporated in 1986. In its glory years, it featured a touring dance company and thriving performing arts programming for youth.

The theater moved to its current location, 2727 B St., the former home of the B Street Children’s Theater, in 2017 after 20 years at its previous location in East Sacramento, when the building’s owner chose not to renew its lease.

“Celebration Arts has flourished for 40 years because it has served a vital service by allowing Black people to see ourselves and our stories on the professional stage,” says Dr. Halifu Osumare, a former board member.

Community advocate and activist Madelynn Rucker is spearheading a grassroots effort to save Celebration Arts. A former frequent patron, Rucker had not visited recently and was unaware the theater was in danger. Rucker rolled up her sleeves and gathered a group of other locals dedicated to preserving Black culture. She hosted a Zoom meeting, laying out the issue and asking for commitments of support.

“I was very alarmed because you get used to these institutions, just trusting they’ll be there,” Rucker says.

Exit Stage Left

Anova says a Nov. 10 board meeting got heated, at which time she issued a challenge, calling for those who aren’t willing to help save the theater to step aside. She followed up the remarks with a terse letter.

“I think they were stunned into silence,” she recounts. “A couple of days later, the resignations started trickling in.”

The number of board members has decreased from nine to three. Replacements will be recruited to focus on fundraising.

Celebration Arts tried to raise $500,000 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when theaters were hit hard by mandatory closures and continued safety measures limited large gatherings. The industry hasn’t fully recovered.

“Everyone’s struggling, but we’re really bare bones,” Anova says.

A current crowdfunding effort on the Big Day of Giving website has garnered just $100 of its noted $21,000 goal. According to the site, the single donation came in earlier this month.

“We don’t want to cry wolf … but the struggle really is real,” Anova says.

The rent, figuratively and literally, is due and the urgency of the matter demands transparency, she says.

“We have a $9,300 rent in this theater,” she continues. “Our reserve that we have, which is very, very thin, like maybe $34,000, we’re about to go into that to start paying salary and our rent and operations.”

An end-of-the year campaign seeks to raise $40,000.

“That $40,000, it really is $50,000, but we said [$40,000] to go with our 40th-year anniversary,” Anova says. “What that will do is make it so that we don’t have to go into our reserves to pay our rent or to make payroll. We’ve collected about $12,000 since we started this and we have $20,000 pledged.”

As of Dec. 20, the fundraiser on givebutter.com had online donations listed as $3,550. Specific needs listed include general operating costs; the cost of monthly storage for sets and equipment; licensing fees for plays; production costs; and the salary of a teaching artist to lead a senior dance wellness program. Donations are also being collected on Celebration Arts’ website.

“If we get that infusion of $50,000, we will make it to March,” Anova says. “If we don’t, March will be where we have to go into our reserves and basically start shutting down.”

The theater’s historical reliance on unpaid volunteers has proven challenging, as has the debate on affordability vs. funding, as the commitment to keeping ticket prices affordable forces a dependence on a donation- and donor-based funding model.

“We have 100 seats. We are never going to program our way out of debt,” Anova says. “We need a bigger plan for sponsorship, for perhaps an endowment one day.”

Ellison envisioned breathing new life into the theater; the 2024 season, “Black Girl Magic,” featured plays entirely written and directed by Black women, including longtime company member Imani Mitchel.

It instituted a flex pass program that allows patrons to purchase a set number of tickets that can be used for a single show or for productions throughout the season. He also spoke of reestablishing the local theater’s presence in national theater circles to attract prominent shows, playwrights and performers.

Anova says after “lots of prayer and meditation,” she’ll return to Wheatley’s focus on music, dance and theater. There’ll be line-dancing classes, a spring dance concert and tributes to the late legends Miles Davis and John Coltrane in celebration of their 100th birthdays.

Revival

She’s also leaning into the healing power of culturally conscious theater and arts.

“In this climate, in terms of the arts, in terms of Black people, museums closing down and Black history being challenged, I envision us as a Black arts hub, a Black community-engaged hub for all the arts, where art is medicine.”

Anova says improving the experience for theatergoers, performers and production crews is a priority.

“I really want this to be a space that people can come to and feel safe and seen, and so we have to be safe and seen and get ourselves together,” she says. “That’s the work that I’m embarking on with the small team that we have left.”

“There’s an audience and there’s people who will support Celebration Arts,” Rucker says. “We need to figure out how to reach them, so when they come, they want to come back. I think it’ll grow with the more support that you have.”

In recent months, Celebration Arts has enjoyed sold-out productions of Douglas Lyons’ “Chicken and Biscuits” and “Black Nativity,” which closed Dec. 21. Despite the uncertainty, Anova is taking a “the show must go on” approach. The 2026 season has four shows scheduled instead of six, Anova says, to allow more time for fundraising. Lyons’ “Don’t Touch My Hair” and “Dot,” written by award-winning actor Colman Domingo, are among next season’s offerings. Anova looks forward to more opportunities to work with Sacramento’s own creatives, such as Danielle Truitt and Anthony D’Juan. A grant of $18,000 from a California Nonprofit Performing Arts Grant Program is expected to be added to Celebration Arts’ coffers in mid-January.

While Dr. Osumare is now listed as an emeritus board member, she has remained an active champion, writing grants and recently rallying support for what was supposed to be the theater’s 40th anniversary. The November celebration was postponed amid the current turmoil, as was a scheduled production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Between Riverside and Crazy,” by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

“This timing allows us to celebrate with greater impact and intention, and to invite our donors, alumni, and partners to be part of something truly historic,” Dr. Osumare says of the rescheduled milestone.

“It also gives us the opportunity to strengthen our sponsorship base, refine our messaging and ensure that the event reflects the excellence and community spirit that Celebration Arts has represented for four decades.”

She remains optimistic.

“These are hard times for theater in general,” she says. “But the community will not let Celebration Arts die because it is too vital for our community’s survival in Sacramento.”

“Your riches are not just in money. We have our reputation to rebuild in terms of being reliable, in terms of being healthy, in terms of being a community-engaged place that people can count on. We have a lot of work to do.” – Erinn Anova