Sacramento’s vibrant arts and cultural offerings would be much worse off if not for the city’s varied and diverse neighborhood fixtures.
That commitment is found through examples such as the historical Florin Square and the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum, through the wide array of programming provided by the Latino Center of Arts and Culture near Broadway and Front Street, at Curtis Park’s Side Door music venue, or the eclectic businesses and art galleries along Del Paso Boulevard and R Street.
Daniel Castaneda’s VIP Café, with its eye-catching garden mural of a saxophonist visible from Del Paso Boulevard, is a recent example of a business helping to revitalize its neighborhood by creating a community hub, offering barbecue meats and sandwiches with a Latin flair while hosting community and nonprofit events.
“I think it’s very important for businesses to be open on the Boulevard,” Castaneda says, noting that VIP Café opened in early 2024. “Because you’re not going to have to go as far, and it’s there for the people, for the neighborhood.”
The importance of art and cultural offerings in neighborhoods, says Luisa Lavulo, chair of the Sacramento Arts, Culture and Creative Economy Commission, is how they can get community members to participate and take ownership for what they create. The City of Sacramento’s Office of Arts and Culture is dedicated to supporting, promoting and advancing the arts throughout Sacramento.
Lavulo says the city is attempting to connect better with the arts and culture community to let members know what resources are available. “The city does want to invest back into the community,” she says. “It’s just up to the commission to make sure that we’re letting our constituents, in each of our districts, know that there are resources out there. There are grants out there for local artists, and we’d love for the local artists to take advantage of those.”
Johnny Walker, creative director at CASA de ESPAÑOL on R Street, says collaboration with others along the R Street Corridor is the key to a strong neighborhood presence.
“We work well with WAL [Warehouse Artists Lofts] and the other galleries here,” Walker says. “We are good friends with Twisted Track [Gallery]. We try and collaborate with them, and we try to draw people down here to see what we have going on.”
While there are dozens of arts and cultural touchstones enriching the lives of Sacramento residents, here are a few examples where neighborhood community members are stepping up, and residents are benefitting.
In the middle of Del Paso Boulevard is the VIP Café, which hosted the 2025 Spring on the BLVD family event in April 2025. “It’s an opportunity for low access, low-barrier entry into being able to experience arts and culture, having free food, having a photo booth, having access to music and to the arts, without having the expense,” says community organizer Katie Kouklis, whose community arts program was instrumental in putting up the colorful garden mural of a saxophonist in the café’s courtyard.” The VIP Café, open for about a year, has quickly become a neighborhood hub, with sandwiches and barbecue incorporating a unique blend of Latin flavors, while hosting community and nonprofit events.
“Art is essential for every neighborhood,” says Mark Musser, a contemporary figurative painter, during a recent show at The Gallery by We Are Sacramento on Del Paso Boulevard.
Chad Orcutt’s Community Shop Class and the bike-centric Trips for Kids, run by John Boyer, have shared adjoining buildings and a backyard for almost five years on a key stretch of Stockton Boulevard next to Luigi’s Pizza Parlor and down the street from The Guild Theater. Orcutt operates the nonprofit Shop Class and its numerous programs teaching carpentry and providing tools for members. This summer, he’ll take over the remodeled bike shop, and will turn the shop into a neuro-inclusive education and bike mechanics training center, Orcutt says. He relies on $50 monthly memberships and grants from partners like SMUD, and the Eleven Eleven Foundation.
Oak Park Community Center was built in 1980 to serve the Oak Park community and surrounding areas and continues to create a culture of diversity and inclusion, offering a variety of recreational and other programs to children, youth, older adults, and families. Located next to WellSpace Health, Oak Park Community Center is dedicated to fostering a compassionate atmosphere for the community, with a full workout gym, and free food programs such as its Monday and Friday groceries distribution program.
Oak Park Community Center was built in 1980 to serve the Oak Park community and surrounding areas and continues to create a culture of diversity and inclusion, offering a variety of recreational and other programs to children, youth, older adults, and families. Located next to WellSpace Health, Oak Park Community Center is dedicated to fostering a compassionate atmosphere for the community, with a full workout gym, and free food programs such as its Monday and Friday groceries distribution program.
CASA de ESPAÑOL has been an anchor for the arts and cultural scene in the R Street Corridor for 10 years, teaching Spanish to all ages, and hosting live events like the recent “Nuestra Fuerza Photography Exhibit,” making a home for local artists. CASA de ESPAÑOL, holds both indoor and outdoor events, says Creative Director Johnny Walker. “The majority of the events we do are free,” Walker says. “We use revenue from our Spanish classes to pay for everything.”
CASA de ESPAÑOL has been an anchor for the arts and cultural scene in the R Street Corridor for 10 years, teaching Spanish to all ages, and hosting live events like the recent artist “Nuestra Fuerza Photography Exhibit,” making a home for local artists. CASA de ESPAÑOL, holds both indoor and outdoor events, says Creative Director Johnny Walker. “The majority of the events we do are free,” Walker says. “We use revenue from our Spanish classes to pay for everything.”
Most know the Latino Center of Art and Culture for its exhibitions and big, colorful outdoor events such as “Fiesta de Frida,” “Las Pastorelas de Sacramento” and “Oaxaca en Sacramento,” says Executive Director Bridgétt Rexford. But the decades-old space near Miller Regional Park also features many adult learning programs, like the recent Capital Storytelling Workshop. “What we’re aiming for is to have more year-long, year-round programming to activate the space in different ways, whether it’s really small or very large groups,” Rexford says.
Alma Lopez, board chair for the Latino Center of Art and Culture, prepares for a Capital Storytelling Workshop on May 17.
SacYards Community Tap House at 1725 33rd St. (between P Street and Stockton Boulevard) has only been around since 2017, but the former automotive garage has quickly become a neighborhood family favorite and hub. With regular music events highlighting its dog-friendly Biergarten, SacYard features its own kitchen, Chow at SacYard, and 3,800 square feet of outdoor amenities such as 24 beer taps, fire pits, communal bench seating and outdoor games like corn hole.
SacYards Community Tap House.
The 73,000-square-foot Florin Square, which includes the 3,000-square-foot Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum, is a complex with close to 100 service businesses, retailers and nonprofits all with business owners of color. It is the largest collaboration of Black-owned businesses in Northern California. In mid-April, a small fire occurred in one of the suites and parts of the complex is currently under construction, which should be completed by the end of June, says 20-year Florin Square owner Thomas Donaldson. In addition to its hallways featuring art from around the world from local artists Shonna McDaniels, Lawrence Sullivan, Joyce N. Carley and Deborah Ledet, the complex also welcomes school tours and hosts an extensive list of workshops, classes and special events. On the first and third Saturday of each month, Florin Square holds an outdoor African Marketplace where vendors sell their wares. “One of our keys is to make sure we bring in tenants who have a passion for working in whatever endeavor they pick,” Donaldson says.
The walls inside the 73,000-square-foot Florin Square, which includes the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum, are lined with murals depicting the cultural diversity of the neighborhood.
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This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics, the city had no editorial influence over this story. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.
Words and photographs by Steve Martarano
