Art Luna, cafe owner and patron of the arts

by Anthony Siino

Art Luna is all about, well, art. Not Art, but art. As the longtime owner-operator of Luna’s Cafe & Juice Bar, Luna’s been putting up his restaurant’s wall space and stage to give all sorts of artists the chance to express themselves ever since he opened the place with his sister, Chris, in 1983. The California Lawyers for the Arts recently named him as a recipient of the 2016 Artistic License Award for his dedication, so what better time to chat about Sacramento art history, bad parking and the future of Luna’s with Luna himself?

What is it about art that appeals to you?

Artists and arts have always been important to me, because I feel like artists are the seers of society. They are the visionaries. They push the boundaries of society, of the norms, of the mores, of the values. They push society in that way, not in that their vision comes true, but they come up with new ideas and inseminate society that way.

What are you looking for when choosing what to display?

I’m always trying to put up something that’s political or makes a statement. Art is political and should be political, should make a statement. … George Bush’s first year in office, we did an art show around that, and it just happened that 9/11 happened a few months before we were supposed to do his show. … The artists were kind of freaking out, like, “Oh my God, here we are being political and criticizing George Bush,” and it was critical of him, and I said, “Let’s do it! It kind of makes it even more important.”

Woah. How was that show received?

Well, really well. But I did have a young rock group from Grass Valley refuse to play. They came down, set up and looked at the artwork and they were talking about it like, “Hey, we don’t like this artwork,” and I said, “Well, what? I’m not gonna take it down.” So they refused to play and I announced to the audience that they weren’t going to play and everybody was booing the rock group. That was the only incident that I can recall for that particular show.

What was it like when you first got going?

Initially, we worked primarily with Chicano visual artists because galleries back in ’83 were looking at their art as folk art. Artists like Esteban Villa, José Montoya, Luis “The Foot” Gonzalez, Juanishi Orosco, were complaining that every time they approached the gallery, they were calling them folk artists and weren’t interested in their work. That was right about the time we came along and we said, “Oh gladly, we’ll work with you.” Our focus initially was featuring Chicano, Mexican and Native American artists on our wall.

There’s lots of new development on 16th Street. Will Luna’s be sticking it out there?

I intend to stick around for the next couple years. One problem we’re having is that parking is horrendous in the neighborhood. I hear complaints every day about people not being able to get there because they can’t find the parking.

Is it worse than years past?

Yes. I feel that we have the least amount of parking on 16th Street of any business in Sacramento.

What about your neighbors? Everybody happy with a music venue there?

I have apartments upstairs, above the cafe, and always have, but our landlord lets them know when they’re moving in that the cafe has performances in the evening. So people are very accepting of that, never had an issue. And I’ve always let the tenants know when I meet them that they’re welcome to come to any of the shows for free because they’re hearing them anyway, so might as well come down and enjoy them in person.

How often are you onstage instead of behind the scenes?

I’ve been up there, I’ve done poetry, I’ve spoken a number of times at the cafe. I’m more of the guy-behind-the-curtain kind of thing. I grew up playing guitar, and dabbled in piano and the trumpet a little bit, but you know, I enjoy being more of a presenter. … I’m a writer, I’m a photographer, I’ve showcased my work before and sold a number of pieces. I really enjoy this variety of things we do at the cafe. It’s exciting, it’s stimulating. If I were just to do one thing, personally, I might find that boring. … It’s an important concept in my life, striking that balance.