St Elmo Village

A Place of Creativity
"Do What You Love - Love What You Do"

is a place of creativity, where we live, teach and work. We are a Los Angeles Cultural Landmark. We deeply thank all of you for being part of our 50th Anniversary!

The Village has been cited as a mecca for literacy,visual and performance art and as a green space model for Los Angeles City and Urban elevation.

The Seed of
St. Elmo Village: 1969

People and the use of their abilities give birth to a great strength. It is this use that makes one complete in his right now. This is truly St. Elmo Village, making use of what you have, and using your right-now – your God-given abilities. It is from this that one makes a way and feeds some of his hungers. It is meeting people that tears down the door of insecurity. We people that happen to be artist are only vehicles to self-awareness and the use of one’s ability that

brings on self-accomplishment and self-pride. Through using your right now, you find a direction, you make a dream a reality. This is St. Elmo Village. If there be a goal, that goal is a unification of people, without fear or ultra-tradition, and thus, people will meet and grow as people. Children, teenagers, adults, the aged, people first. If we put forth our efforts, use our ability along these lines, it will make a chain that is boundless. For it is we people that make things, and if we people use our natural abilities we make many things. This is the seed of St. Elmo Village. If you live in a shoebox, brighten it up, be proud of it, for that is yours. This will destroy slums, ghettos and insecurity. Establish self-use. If we people of St. Elmo Village greet people with this air, feed people with this food, this seed of St. Elmo Village will sprout through its youth and its age. But we must use all of our efforts and abilities and we must maintain flexibility of life.

St. Elmo is not a school or an art colony. It is a place of
creativity – a place where people can meet as people – a seed of
inspiration to people to meet as people first.

St. Elmo Village is a place where we live, where we use what we have in the direction of building up where we live, of being proud of where we live, for
it is this seed that will grow in our children and their children, thereby
closing that reputed generation gap and showing usability, self-usability, without institutional guidelines. We must never lose sight of this reality, that the greatest fear in our society is the walls of the institutions that keep our people fearful and separate from one another. There is a greater use,
a greater productivity, when we use our individual use without waiting for this or that. This is the seed that we of St. Elmo Village wish to instill and water.The use of one’s greatest breath – right now, the awareness of one’s
feelings and having confidence, feeling for yourself, for that is a God-given right from birth.