Leslie Labowitz Starus
Local Artist In Residence
18th Street Campus |1655 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404

Leslie Labowitz-Starus, Los Angeles artist and entrepreneur, is best known for her public performance work on violence against women in collaboration with Suzanne Lacy from 1977–82. In 1972, she was a Fulbright scholar in Germany, where she worked with Joseph Beuys, and considers herself an Art/Life artist. Since 1980, her art work has shifted to ecological concerns, primarily focusing on food and agriculture. For over 30 years, Labowitz-Starus created performances and installations while building a business, called SPROUTIME. She began as an urban farmer, growing sprouts in her backyard in Venice and expanded her operation to a three-quarter acre agricultural site and food processing facility in the San Fernando Valley in LA County, growing, manufacturing and distributing organic products throughout Southern California. She is considered an expert in the field of sprouting and an authority on urban farming and farmers’ markets. In 2010, she received an “Innovation Leadership” award for Women In Business from the San Fernando Valley Economic Development Corporation.