About Us
American Friends of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Inc. ("American Friends") is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization that was incorporated in Delaware on September 14, 1999. The Internal Revenue Service recognizes the organization as tax-exempt under section 501 (c) (3) as a public charity described in section 509 (a) (1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
American Friends’ goals and objectives are to promote, encourage and foster understanding and appreciation by the American public the plays and poetry of William Shakespeare.
American Friends, through monetary contributions and donations also supports the preservation of the Shakespeare houses and educational programs of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
From 1999 to 2010, American Friends’ collaboration and donations supported the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in the following areas:
- Support of a Columbia University summer study program at the Shakespeare Centre sponsored by former Congressman (R-NY) Benjamin Gilman, the Gilman Graduate Fellowship scholarship program,
- Co-sponsorship of the “Great Garden Sculpture Education Program” including the permanent placement of eight bronze monuments by American sculptor Greg Wyatt inspired by Shakespeare’s plays:
- The Tempest
- Hamlet
- King Lear
- Julius Caesar
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Falstaff and Henry IV
- Macbeth
- The Winter’s Tale
- Support for the renovation and enhancement of the Harvard House,
- Support for educational programs at the Shakespeare Centre with American high schools, colleges and universities,
- Support of Anne Hathaway’s Cottage’s "Tree Garden, Young Artists’ Program," co-sponsored by the Royal Academy of Arts,
- Participation in the National Endowment for the Arts 2006-2007 Chairman’s Grant "Rembrandt/Shakespeare: Themes of Interiority."