Name Dropping: A worldwide recognition for Lenz Arts owners
(March 19, 2016)

Andy and Cynthia Lenz, owners of Lenz Arts in Santa Cruz were honored with the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Art Materials Association. Contributed

By Justine DaCosta, Santa Cruz Sentinel

And the winners are: Andy and Cynthia Lenz, owners of Lenz Arts in Santa Cruz.

The pair were honored with the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Art Materials Association at a Match 5 ceremony at the Hyatt Regency in Houston. The award honors men and women who have made a significant impact on the fine art materials industry, according to the association.

About 250 members of the association traveled from all over the world, including Australia, Spain and Italy, to attend the event, which the recipients’ son, Andrew Lenz, Jr., likened to the Academy Awards for the art materials world. He and friend/artist materials sales rep Steve Gallisdorfer of Nevada City gave a presentation that included a spoken history of Lenz Arts and slides documenting the store’s almost 50-year history.

“A lot of people came up to my folks telling them, ‘Well deserved,’” Lenz, Jr. wrote in an email. “There are others out there who are likely just as deserving, but that doesn’t take away from the hard work my parents have put in taking care of the Santa Cruz community for decades.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award is no small recognition; past recipients include France’s Dominic Sennelier, whose company made paint for the French impressionists, and Steve Pleune of Winsor & Newton in England.

“When my parents got the phone call that they’d been voted to receive the award they didn’t even know they’d been nominated,” Lenz, Jr. wrote. “And they’d been nominated by a number of people, too. They were surprised to learn of the honor, and humbled.”

[Santa Cruz Sentinel article republished by permission.]