Building Tours

EMPAC building tours take visitors behind the scenes to experience the center’s infrastructure as few do. Each one is hosted by an EMPAC staff member with a different area of expertise—so whether you attend one or all this season, there’s always something new to learn and discover.

Join us! EMPAC Tours are offered at no cost and begin in the Main Lobby. Please plan to arrive 15 minutes before tour start time. Each tour runs approximately 90 minutes.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 AT 1PM
WITH ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR JONAS BRAASCH

Join Jonas Braasch for a tour highlighting the center’s architectural acoustics and learn how the EMPAC panorama screen system led to the development of the Rensselaer CRAIVE-Lab (Collaborative Research Augmented Immersive Virtual Environment).

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19 AT 11AM
WITH CURATOR KATHERINE C.M. ADAMS

Join Katherine C.M. Adams for a behind-the-scenes look at EMPAC’s production facilities. Adams will discuss the acoustic and visual potential of each EMPAC venue for the making of complex performance works, including artists-in-residence Bassem Saad and Sanja Grozdanić’s upcoming Permanent Trespass.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9 AT 11AM
WITH DIRECTOR FOR STAGE TECHNOLOGIES STEPHANIE VAN SANDT

Each of EMPAC’s performance spaces were designed as a blank canvas, endlessly customizable according to the needs of EMPAC’s diverse productions. Join Master Electrician Stephanie Van Sandt for a behind-the-scenes tour of all the nuts and bolts that make the space work, and learn about how technology and creativity meld in collaboration with artists in the creation of new work.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14 AT 11AM
WITH SENIOR NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR DAVE BEBB

Join Dave Bebb for a tour from an information technology perspective. With miles of fiber optic cable linking all four venues as well as the audio and video recording facilities, EMPAC is an environment where physical and digital worlds seamlessly intersect.