When Andy and Cynthia Lenz (both with B.A. degrees in Art) couldn't find the supplies they needed in Santa Cruz, they founded Lenz Arts on August 1, 1968. After a few months of operating out of their home, a retail store front of 900 square feet (including loft) was opened March 1, 1969 on Pacific Avenue near the head of the Pacific Garden Mall.

On July 1, 1972, Lenz Arts made a needed move to its current location (10,000 square feet) at 142 River Street into what was a cold-storage facility constructed prior to household freezers becoming commonplace.

Lenz Arts was incorporated in 1976. In 1979, Andrew Jr., at age 12, cut his first picture framing mats.

Andrew Jr. was promoted to Manager in 1989. In the fall of 1991, a warehouse was added to hold back stock as well as our many thousands of feet of picture frame moulding and the saws required to cut it.

Since then, we've remodeled a few times to expland retail space, moved displays and departments around, added product lines, good stuff like that.

Lenz Arts remains a very family oriented business, with Andy, Cynthia, Andrew, and Matthew Lenz involved on a day-to-day basis along with more than a dozen staff members. We all look forward to serving you!

Andy Lenz answering questions at a demonstration in Spring of 2005.

Lenz Arts was temporarily shut down by a two-alarm fire on March 16, 2002, but we were back at it after two weeks of some very hard work!

A nice newspaper article about San Francisco Bay Area printmaker Tom Killion, complimenting Lenz Arts:
Woodcut artist Tom Killion celebrates Mt. Tamalpais

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