About us

Angelica Center for Arts and Music (ACAM), an after school and summer arts education program, provides classes in dance, music, theatre, and computer art, at no charge for underserved youth in the Greater Pico Union Neighborhood of Los Angeles. Instruments are loaned to music students free of charge. ACAM serves at risk youth in collaboration with Angelica Lutheran Church, Hope Street Family Center-Margolis Center, and Magnolia Family Center.

Our Values

ACAM is committed to providing young people from low income families the opportunity to develop their talents in the arts: dance, music, theatre. This commitment benefits the children, their families and the community.
ACAM builds a feeling of community among the students and their families. This sense of community is shared by the teachers, staff, board members and community partners. The classes at ACAM bring joy and hope to the community.
ACAM builds a sense of self and develops a realization of one’s importance within a group.
ACAM helps students learn to collaborate with one another in dance, theatre and music classes, as well as within their families. With skills they have already learned, older students help mentor younger ones. Teachers, staff and board members learn from each other and grow. ACAM is sustained by collaboration with parents, Angelica Lutheran Church, Hope Street Family Center and New City Parish.

ACAM teachers demonstrate respect for the talent of their students and for their potential. In turn, the students develop a respect for self, their peers and their teachers. Students learn to respect and appreciate the efforts of their parents to provide an arts education for them. The teachers, staff, board members and community collaborators share a strong sense of respect for the mission of Angelica Center for Arts and Music.
ACAM students develop responsibility by managing their time, practicing their instruments, preparing theatre and dance lessons, and learning material assigned to them. Students develop a sense of responsibility to each other. ACAM students learn to take responsibility for their growth and development and for helping their fellow students learn. In doing so, they learn they have a responsibility to give back to their community – to be a good citizen.
The board members, staff and teachers strive to give their best efforts to this work. ACAM emphasizes teaching the whole child.
ACAM is committed to finding ways to sustain the work of ACAM for both current and future students. ACAM also encourages students to think about and demonstrate sustainability within their families, the community and the world.

Our History

ACAM was a way for founder Ellen Sell, to give back to a neighborhood and community that provided her “a music home” when she moved to Los Angeles. As a student in the opera program at USC, Ellen needed practice space and Angelica Lutheran Church provided that for her. In return, she led an afterschool class for children and helped with children’s music at Angelica Lutheran Church. For the next twenty-seven years she sang in the church’s choir, served on their church council and on numerous committees.

Over the years, Pico-Union saw a socio-economic decline, as “white-flight” responded to the growing immigrant population. Today Pico Union, a “port of entry” for Los Angeles’s immigrant community, is one of the poorest areas in Los Angeles: the total of households falling under the Federal Poverty Level stands at 58%, an increase of 13 % since 2000. Residents’ lack of education, poor job skills and difficulty with English makes finding gainful employment extremely challenging. Comprised of 78% Latinos, the Pico-Union neighborhood is one of the most densely populated areas of Los Angeles (62,000 people living in 1.7 square miles), with 21,000 under the age of 19 (U.S. Census, 2010).

Pico-Union’s youth were particularly challenged: youth make up one-third of the area’s residents; high school graduation rates are extremely low with only 39% of the population having a high school diploma; Pico-Union is home to ten identified gangs and a variety of other antisocial behavior. Youth needed a viable, positive alternative to the antisocial options youth have in the area.

Studies show classes for youth in the arts help address problems of at-risk youth (Caterall, 1998). Consequently youth improve learning skills, increase their test scores, and stay in school. However, with public school funding for the arts cut by 75% in 2012, youth in Pico-Union youth have almost no opportunity for arts lessons in or after school.
The transformative power of the performing arts in the lives of at-risk youth is demonstrated in “El Sistema”—the community-based arts program for youth in the barrios of Venezuela that has dramatically changed the life trajectory of thousands of Venezuela’s neediest children—ACAM is designed to adapt “El Sistema” to the situation in Pico-Union.

Thus, ACAM was born in 2010. The program replicates the El Sistema model with group teaching, peer-to-peer learning, an emphasis on ensemble performances and a spirit of “giving back” to the immediate community of the organization, and taking ownership of the program. Studies show that arts programming promotes social interaction among community members, creates a sense of community identity and helps build social capital and empowerment of communities to organize for collective action (McCarthy, et al, Rand Report, 2004; Brice Heath, 1998). Also, arts programs help with sociocultural development: teamwork skills, tolerance, and appreciation of diversity in people and ideas, building communities and maintaining cultural pride (Iwai, 2004).

James Caterall’s research document that when at-risk youth have a history of intensive arts experiences, in or out of school, not only do they improve and perform better academically in school, but also they are much more civic minded as citizens of the community (Caterall, 1998).

Meet our Team

Angelica Center for Arts and Music is fortunate to have a highly-diverse and highly-qualified staff of administrators and educators that bring a joy and enthusiasm to their work. Thanks to their passion for arts education, every enrolled student has the opportunity to develop a basic skill level and a life-long appreciation of fine arts.