The William G. Congdon Foundation was established in 1980 by William Congdon’s express will to entrust to a Foundation his artistic legacy with the following purposes:

• To promote the professional and educational advantage of individuals interested in the arts.
• To develop educational programs that foster understanding and appreciation of the arts.
• To collect and disseminate educational information that promotes understanding of the arts.
• To assist aspiring and established artists, both in the United States and abroad, in their individual pursuit of greater knowledge and understanding of the arts.
• To exercise all the powers conferred upon corporations formed under the District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act, including but not limited to the power to accept donations of money or property, whether real or personal, or any interest therein, wherever situated.

 The foundation is a U.S. non-profit organization [Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code]. Its registered office is in Washington, DC, but it also has a branch office in Italy. This juridical form, which ideally and practically establishes the foundation as a bridge between two worlds, reflects the artistic and human itinerary of its founder.

This is why up to now the main activity of the foundation has consisted in the valorization of this important and nearly unknown legacy. Indeed, few contemporary artists can claim such a vast collection of paintings, covering such a long period of time (50 years), as well as such a quantity of documents that allow scholars to reconstruct the circumstances, the aspirations and the profound motivations of his creative process. For this reason, this entire patrimony is being offered as a sort of “laboratory” for the study of the creative process in a multidisciplinary perspective.

The William G. Congdon Foundation was established – originally under the name The Foundation for Improving Understanding of the Arts – by an act of the 2nd of October 1980 under the Law of the District of Columbia (USA) for Non-profit Corporations. The Board of Directors of the Foundation subsequently resolved to set up a Branch Office of the Foundation in Italy. These acts gave formal and juridical substance to the American painter William Congdon’s express will to entrust to a Foundation the task of continuing and making the best possible use of his own artistic experience. Thus the Foundation has undertaken to care for the figurative and literary works of the artist and to use them in accordance with its statutory, cultural and educational objectives. This undertaking has been further strengthened, after Congdon’s death on the 15th of April 1998, when the Foundation on the 6th of October of that year was given its new name.