Elaine Adams combines her lifelong passion for the arts and her extensive background in art history, research, and writing, along with her experience in executive administration and finance, to provide a unique and personal approach to serving artists and gallery clients. As the wife of the American artist Peter Adams, she is actively involved in various capacities in the arts industry, particularly in the contemporary-traditional fine art scene, and is recognized as one of the country’s most dynamic and influential forces in the growing shift away from conceptual art and back to representational, figurative formats. In 2003, she founded American Legacy Fine Arts, a private art gallery specializing in curated selections of contemporary-traditional and historic works of original art. The gallery offers quality personal service to new and established art collectors from around the world.

Read some of Elaine’s collecting advice, published in Whittier Trust’s Client Newsletter (Read Article).

Watch the interview with Elaine Adams and Peter Trippi, Editor-in-Chief of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine.

Publications:
Elaine Adams is an author and lecturer on topics relating to traditional fine arts, classical art training, and California’s arts heritage. As a writer, she has published more than 30 original articles about artists and art history, primarily for the multi-award-winning California Art Club Newsletter. In addition, she wrote a monthly column for the national publication Art-Talk titled Oro de California (1997-1999). In 2003, her article about artist Carl Rungius was published in American Art Review magazine. She has also collaborated with New York publishers, Skira Rizzoli, serving as project manager and essayist, on two books California Light: A Century of Landscapes: Paintings of the California Art Club (2010) and California Seascapes and Beach Towns: Paintings of the California Art Club (fall 2017).

Honors:
In 2014, Elaine Adams and her husband, artist Peter Adams, were both granted the Lifetime Achievement award from PleinAir Magazine as well as the Great Art Matters Award from Laguna College of Art and Design for their work in “Communicating the Value of Representational Art.” In 2007, the Autry Museum in Los Angeles awarded Mrs. Adams with the John J. Geraghty Award for the advancement of traditional fine art in the American West. The Pasadena Arts Council presented Mrs. Adams with the Gold Crown Special Award in 2000 for her contributions in advancing contemporary-traditional art, and in November of 1997 Southwest Art Magazine named Elaine Adams one of the country’s “Five Most Notable Women.”

Community:
Adams has served on several art committees and cultural boards, including Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s American Art Council (Steering Committee), Pacific Asia Museum (Chair of the 1994 Festival of the Autumn Moon), ArtCenter College of Design (ArtCenter 100 member), Pasadena Symphony (Board of Directors), Rymann-Carroll Foundation (Board of Directors), the American Society of Portrait Artists (Board of Directors), and the California Art Club (Board of Directors). As an art authority, Adams occasionally serves as judge for larger art competitions, including in 2009 along with two other arts judges, Henry Lien and Chip Tom, selected winning artwork submitted by Laguna College of Art and Design students at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California; and in 2015 Elaine Adams together with Christopher Forbes were invited to judge Plein Air Easton's 2015 Competition, held in Easton, Maryland; in 2018 Adams served as the sole judge for the 8th Annual PleinAir Salon Competition hosted by PleinAir Magazine; and in November of 2025 she will be judging an international plein air competition for PleinAir Magazine. Since 1993, Elaine Adams has held the positions of Executive Director and CEO of the historic California Art Club (established 1909), as well as Editor-in-Chief of the multi-award-winning scholarly journal, the California Art Club Newsletter.

Prior to her work in the art world, Elaine Adams studied at the University of Southern California, where she received dual bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and economics. After graduation, she worked as a stockbroker at Crowell, Weedon & Co. in Los Angeles, the largest independent investment firm in the Western United States.

Anne Decker applies her five dedicated years of experience in the corporate and public relations fields towards supporting the multi-faceted operations of American Legacy Fine Arts. As a former corporate manager with Unocal Oil Company, she oversaw the complexities of running forty-five retail outlets. In addition to her administrative skills, Anne Decker’s ability for personal communications is unsurpassed as she also worked in the public relations industry and gained the confidence of many prominent clients. She has authored and edited descriptive materials for DVD launches for the entertainment industry, as well as for numerous national and international publications, such as Redbook, Marie Claire, GQ, Men’s Health, Parents, Parenting, and USA Weekend. Anne Decker graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Communications and Public Relations from the University of The Pacific and spent a study semester abroad in Toulouse, France. As a community volunteer, she has served as Chairman of the PTA Summer Reading Program and Vice President of La Canada Junior Women’s Club.

Trajan Willis graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in Business Management Economics and is also an alumnus of The Science Academy STEM Magnet. In the summer of 2024, he interned at American Legacy Fine Arts, where he gained valuable hands-on experience in gallery operations. Now serving as ALFA’s Business Development & Marketing Associate, Trajan supports the gallery’s strategic growth by enhancing business and marketing initiatives, strengthening relationships within the local arts community, and contributing to the expansion of ALFA’s presence worldwide.

James Slatoff graduated from USC with a major in Psychology and is an alumnus of Loyola High School. He is the son of internationally renowned sculptor, Christopher Slatoff, whose works are represented by the gallery. Growing up in Los Angeles, surrounded by fine arts and artists, James is well acquainted with the multi-faceted aspects of the arts industry and is eager to help develop gallery relationships.

Lara Sassounian is an award-winning, passionate, trustworthy and hard-working advertising professional. After several years of marketing and public relations experience, Lara combined her passion for the arts and her marketing prowess to serve the art industry at large.

As the founder of Artfully Curated, Lara serves the fine arts industry with her full-service public relation agency. Like an artist’s tools, Lara utilizes all the tools in her arsenal to provide clients with meaningful and impactful PR services for the fine arts. She holds a master’s degree in business administration, with a concentration in digital marketing, from Johns Hopkins University. In addition, she has a bachelor’s degree in advertising and art history from the University of Southern California.

Beverly Chang demonstrated a love of creative and artistic pursuits at a young age. She entered college as a fine arts major, and later integrated her appreciation for art and design into a highly specialized career in promoting art. Today, she provides strategic marketing counsel to arts organizations and creative people who are looking to market their work.

She has spearheaded the marketing effort for a number of art exhibitions and events, including A Community of Angels, the largest public art exhibition ever staged in the City of Los Angeles; the California Art Club’s Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibitions, beginning with the 94th annual exhibit held in 2005 to present; the Chinatown Art Festival; and the first juried art exhibition to be held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Spiritual Spectrum: Paintings and Sculpture by the California Art Club. Beverly was previously affiliated with The Walt Disney Company, where she created and implemented national multi-tiered marketing campaigns for the animation art and other artwork developed at the studio and sold in art galleries around the world. She holds a master’s degree in business administration, with a dual concentration in marketing and finance, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, she has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public relations from the University of Southern California.

Trish Heckman provides the gallery with its own elegant and timeless appeal on all printed materials. As a fine art collector herself, Trish possesses a heightened sense of aesthetics, and applies this to her professional design concepts to create a unique identity for each of her clients. She has provided distinctive designs for various and significant institutions and art establishments, including the University of Southern California, the Vincent Price Gallery, California Art Club, and several Los Angeles fine art galleries. Trish majored in fine art with an emphasis on design at San Diego State University and continued to study graphic design in the graduate program at California State University, Los Angeles.