Artist Legacy and Estate Planning Clinic Keynote Address: December 10, 2021

The Center for Art Law’s newly launched Artist Legacy and Estate Planning Clinic had its second session with an evening of low-cost consultations with attorneys, tax experts, and other arts professionals with experience in estate and legacy planning.

The Keynote Address was on Legacy and Estate Planning by Mara McCarthy.

About the Speaker:

Mara McCarthy is the Principal and Curator of The Box gallery, which is in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. Since starting The Box in 2007, Mara has worked to create a unique art space- exhibiting work from artists with a diverse range of mediums, both historical and contemporary, many of whom have been unsupported and forgotten.

The Box LA, originally located on the historic Chung King Rd. of Chinatown, Los Angeles, started out with a focus on artists who had been overlooked both historically and geographically. Presenting exhibitions that would shift the understanding of artists such as Barbara T. Smith, Simone Forti, Stan VanDerBeek and Wally Hedrick. Since moving into the Arts District in 2012 and developing the program even more, McCarthy has been expanding her vision of the gallery and has realized the importance of showing politically and psychologically dynamic work. Looking forward McCarthy is interested in working in a way that expands notion of what a commercial gallery can be and to consider how powerful the process of viewing art can be. Expanding the access and concept of a gallery program that include Dance, Painting, Music, Art History, Sculpture, Social Justice projects, Performance and Gallery Editions. Mara graduated from Bank Street Graduate School of Education, New York in 2006 where she was awarded a Masters Degree of Science in Museum Education, Middle School after presenting her dissertation Art for Social Change: A 7-week Interdisciplinary Curriculum Unit for 8th Graders in 2006. McCarthy graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2001 with a Bachelors Degree in Arts, English and Art History.