Patron of the Arts

Brian Burns is currently bringing aesthetic pleasure to thousands through a wonderfully extensive exhibition of Irish art at Boston College – and he will send his collection of painting by more than 35 artists, including Jack Butler Yeats, to the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery in Dublin this summer. 

Brian Burns is the founder and principal benefactor of the John J Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections at Boston College, name after his father. The Library houses 100,000 rare books, 3,000,000 manuscripts and a huge selection of artifacts and documents, which includes the largest archive of rare Irish books in the U.S., the Irish Collection. The papers of Beckett and Yeats can now be accessed by the general public. The Burns Collection also endowed the Library with a visiting Scholar in Irish Studies chair. 

Brian Burns, a 1960 graduate of Harvard Law School, was elected the youngest director of the American Irish Foundation which was established by President Kennedy in 1963. The organization evolved into the American Ireland Fund, where Burns now serves as a director. 

He is chairman and president of BF Enterprises, Inc., a development and real estate holding company in San Francisco.