Walk the walk
For all things Lompoc Art Walk, scan the QR code or visit the lonelyploversocialclub.com. Follow @thelonelyploversocialclub on Instagram for updates. Check out the event in downtown Lompoc on the first Thursday of every month. Start at the Cypress Gallery (119 E. Cypress Ave.) at 5 p.m.
There’s nothing to do in Lompoc. Right?
Almost everyone says so.
At 4 p.m. on a weekday, Old Town is quiet. The sun is high, and it’s almost 70 degrees. Just an average spring evening in Santa Barbara County.
An hour later, the mobile Route One Farmers Market truck parks on Cypress Avenue, next to the Cypress Gallery’s front door.
Musicians start to plug in amps on street corners. Shop owners shift clothing racks to make space for crafting stations. Community members congregate, and children run around on sidewalks in light-up sneakers.
It’s the first inkling of what happens downtown on the first Thursday of every month: the Lompoc Art Walk.
From 5 to 8 p.m., people who attend the interactive, community-led event weave through Old Town’s restaurants, bars, businesses, and art spaces at their own pace. Local creatives work with business owners to display their work where people will see it and talk about it. Art walkers stop at as many locations as they want to, meeting fellow community members and listening to live music with a slice of pizza or cold beverage.
‘Lompoc needs a reminder that in order to have the community that people want to have, they need to come out and be a part of it and participate and support.’
—Lindsay Oldread, Art Walk attendee
Organized by the Lonely Plover Social Club, the family-friendly event is a new characteristic of the City of Arts and Flowers.
Since COVID-19, the city’s vibrancy hasn’t been as tangible, so any event that brings people downtown is exciting to Lompoc City Councilmember Jeremy Ball.
“That’s always been a pet peeve of mine,” Ball told the Sun at Lompoc’s infamous Southside Coffee Company in late February. “It’s like we have such a cute little quirky downtown, and most of the time it’s been radio silent.”
He was born and raised in town, returning full time in 2012. It didn’t feel the same after the pandemic.
“I think that when it really hit me is when COVID first started. I just remember walking around because you felt like you were in a desolate place because no one wanted to go outside,” Ball said. “Everyone was stressed, and there was just nothing. There were no restaurants, no nightlife.”
Residents didn’t give up. Lompocans are hardworking and down to earth, Ball said, commuting to jobs that support the rest of Santa Barbara County. The city is one of the county’s poorest, yet it’s affordable enough for many to keep roofs over their heads.
People celebrate each other. They figure out local solutions.
“I think its quieter, darker days are behind us because downtown’s kind of seen a renaissance,” Ball said, including new funding for the Lompoc Theatre, which has stood quiet since 1991.
The Art Walk is different every month. New businesses join in. Artists rotate. Musicians throw their soundwaves in the mix.
“I wish more people knew how cool some of these local creatives are,” Ball said. “And one of the only ways to stumble into them is through that Art Walk.”
There are locals who nobody knows are creative. Just take Ball himself, a City Council member who daylights as a photographer. He mainly uses his camera for commercial work but took on a creative project that exhibited last summer with his friend and local block printer Angelina LaPointe.
Some may claim there’s nothing to do in Lompoc, but plenty say, ‘If I want something cool to do here, I’ll make it happen.’ One of them co-founded the Art Walk. Before she moved to town in 2017, she’d already heard there was nothing to do, but like Ball explained, the small-town charm is undeniable.
Jasmine Gonzalez helped organize the first Lompoc Art Walk two and a half years ago with just a few participating businesses. Today there are close to 10 locations for visitors to check out open-house style.
Gonzalez always stocks up on pins with the motto, “There’s nothing to do in Lompoc”—a call to action challenging people to “show up and see what happens.” She passes them out to everyone.
Art for all
Shortly after 5 p.m. parking spots on H Street fill up outside the Cypress Gallery, the heart of Lompoc’s art community and the event’s unofficial starting point. Gallery doors remain open extra late on the first Thursday of every month to reveal the featured art exhibit and host a make-and-take craft.
This stop is a highlight for the kiddos. Antsy ones run around out front at Centennial Square, climbing the Cypress tree or eating berries their parents picked up at no cost from the Route One truck. Kids old enough to sit still meander to the back of the gallery for art time led by a gallery volunteer.
In February, visitors decorated Valentine’s Day cards with small paper hearts and stamps. In March they made butterfly rings, and a month later they designed Easter cards.
The gallery, founded in 1994, is run by the Lompoc Valley Art Association. This year, Gonzalez began her term as the organization’s president. She and three new board members are evolving Old Town’s art scene in real time.
Five years ago, the president said “screw it” and decided to be a full-time artist, but creativity has flowed out of her since she was a child. Gonzalez wants all artists in town to succeed.
“Lompoc is full of really talented people that previously maybe didn’t have a place to showcase their art or showcase what they’ve been working on or didn’t have an audience for that locally,” Gonzalez told the Sun, sitting near her 3D display at Southside Coffee Company. “You get one-on-one experiences and personal connections with all these people, and it makes you really proud of people here.”
Known in the local art world as Manic Creative, Gonzalez’s own multimedia work turns heads all over town. The giant, fuzzy Labubu hanging in a window at Southside is hers. So is the cup of coffee wearing Doc Martens. Flames and a lizard floating above clothing racks at Jupiter’s Spark Collection have her name metaphorically written all over them.
“I like making messes, and I like creating things out of things that aren’t meant to have that purpose,” she said, referencing her version of a Labubu, the popular plush toy with sharp teeth.
Southside Coffee doesn’t stay open late enough for Art Walk yet, but it’s high up on Gonzalez’s list to rope in. New businesses are constantly joining and so are new residents. The organizer is just as excited to see people she’s never met as she is to run into her close friends at Art Walks.
Spending quality time and connecting with the community is what it’s all about, and Gonzalez feels the community needs that now more than ever.
“I hope that one day I’m attending the Art Walk, and it is just overflowing with people participating. I just want it to flourish,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t want to be the only one pushing it forward, so I look forward to the day of sort of this self-run thing that Lompoc just gets to keep.”
Another Art Walk cheerleader is Lindsay Oldread, who’s lived in Lompoc her whole life. She believes the event is getting more and more exciting.
As a kid, Oldread remembers the Flower Festival and the classic Lompoc murals. She still loves the small-town atmosphere, the temperate weather, and the fact that she can drive across town in just about five minutes.
“I always tell people, ‘There are things to do in Lompoc, you just have to leave your house,’” Oldread told the Sun.
She gets frustrated when residents travel to tourist destinations instead of shopping locally. Art Walk is designed to be a self-paced experience that puts people in places they may not normally go. Small businesses get new customers, who in turn share discoveries within their circles.
Although Oldread wouldn’t call herself an artist, she does take advantage of the Art Walk’s low-pressure opportunities for creativity, like crafting at the Cypress Gallery.
Each first Thursday has something special. Oldread is always happy to be there, never in a bad mood. How could she be with a gorgeous sunset overhead, walking down Ocean Avenue singing off key with her friends?
“Lompoc needs a reminder that in order to have the community that people want to have, they need to come out and be a part of it and participate and support,” Oldread said. “I just feel like it’s a good opportunity for people to come in with an open mind and an open heart and bring people together.”
A little funky
To get a real sense of the flavor of Lompoc, Oldread suggests stopping by Jupiter’s Spark Collection. Owner Rachel Niel-Voyles’ vintage store is located at H Street and Ocean Avenue. It’s been open for Art Walk pretty much since the store’s origin in April 2024. She’s happy to contribute to the local art scene.
“Right when I opened, I just really wanted to participate in that type of thing,” Niel-Voyles said at the February Art Walk. “I wanted this to be a place that people felt inspired and felt creative.”
Jupiter’s Spark feels like a cross between an art museum and a thrift store. It’s got an eclectic atmosphere with everything from apothecary, shoes, trinkets, and a few spunky things that you’ve just got to see in person. Curious patrons should visit the store’s Instagram for a taste of the Jupiter’s Spark humor.
There’s not one main artist inside the massive corner store but rather 40 to 50 vendors. The owner sold her jewelry on eBay and at pop-up markets for years, but after moving to Lompoc, Niel-Voyles took the risk and bought the vacant space. She thought that people visiting Southside Coffee Company next door would probably be the people interested in sustainable fashion and local goods.
Shoppers will likely hear live music thumping from the sidewalk every first Thursday. Saxophonist Andrew Beal, aka Drukozi, is a safe bet, drawing a crowd of all ages bouncing along while he jams.
“When we have the music going, more community comes out,” Niel-Voyles said. “Maybe not even coming into the shop but just being caught up in the moment, so they just have to stop and vibe.”
Sax notes reverberate across Ocean Avenue to Danny Diaz’s thrift store The Silly Bee. Drukozi played music inside during the April 2 Art Walk while people made cascarones.
Diaz opened his store at the end of 2025 and jumped in on Art Walk festivities in January. He said cars park on the street just to listen to the live music.
“They’re attracted to sound, music, a live environment,” Diaz said at February’s event.
He’d rearranged part of his store to set up folding tables as a makeshift station for DIY pin-making. Visitors could choose from design templates or create a drawing of their own, stamp it on the button in a press machine, and pin it on their shirts.
His philosophy as a business owner is to make people feel at home in Old Town. Diaz’s shop is more than a clothing store. He stocked up with printing machines to make custom shirts, a laser engraver to personalize wood and metal, and a popcorn machine for extra nostalgia. He hosts events to bring people together, especially on weekends.
“My vision is to enhance this area, beautify it, work with other business owners to try to get this area going,” Diaz explained. “Events like this is what we need more of.”
After sundown
A family-friendly event wouldn’t be complete without something to eat, especially after a couple of hours walking the town. Toward the end of the night, Eye on I is a popular dinner stop, a pizza joint on I Street known for hosting live musicians and dishing out brick-oven pies.
Diners can have a seat on the patio with a pint or soda and chat around the fire pit. Around 7 p.m., it’s hopping.
With the official end of the Art Walk at 8 p.m. some residents start winding down, taking kids home for bed. Others are just getting started.
An informal after-party lasts until 11 p.m. at The Wicked Shamrock. Look for a dark Irish pub glowing with neon in the middle of a strip mall on H Street.
Bartender and creative director Sara Farrell, a 10-year Lompoc resident, was organizing art nights at the dive bar on Wednesdays more than a year before the Art Walk was born. She moved it to Thursdays to mesh her momentum with the new group of organizers.
During the walk, the Wicked Shamrock exudes a “creative hum” in Farrell’s mind. Artist Jennifer Racusin leads take-home crafts, patrons pick from the charcuterie platter and shoot pool, and a “really good” psychic tarot card reader holds nothing back. Plus, drinks are flowing.
“This whole dance floor area here, all these tables get moved out, and the middle area is all the craft area,” Farrell explained one early afternoon. “It’s fun because it ends up getting kind of close quarters, so you’re brushing shoulders with people. It’s the creative minds of the community who have gone out, maybe they’ve been at Eye on I. … Everyone’s kind of moving over here.”
Farrell makes earrings and rings under her business, Feral Silver, sold at Jupiter’s Spark. Jewelry is the vessel to show off cut and polished stones, making for one-of-a-kind pieces. The Art Walk helps push Farrell’s venture forward by facilitating conversations between other local creatives.
“It provides community. It can help tie you in with other artists who are maybe going through the same experiences,” Farrell said.
In February 2025, Farrell made an interactive exhibit at Eye on I. Visitors wrote out their own message to someone special on cut-out paper hearts to place in the “love portal.” Eventually all the hearts hung from the ceiling.
“It was visually really cool,” the bartender said. “And then I had all my collage work up on the walls for that one.”
Lompoc is ripe for blooming in terms of community art, Farrell added, and she feels lucky to be part of it. Even those who aren’t art enthusiasts can still walk around Old Town, take a look inside small businesses, and meet new people. When else is there an opportunity to talk to tattoo artists at Fortified Tattoo Company right after smelling the roses at Bella Florist and Gifts?
As far as claiming there’s nothing to do in Lompoc, don’t let the Art Walkers hear you. Farrell—who catches a lot from her post behind the bar—likes to say if you’re a boring person, you’re going to be bored.
“This community is absolutely an incubator for art,” Farrell concluded. “I’m excited to see what happens.”
Reach Staff Writer Madison White at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in April 9 – April 16, 2026.