THE FUNDACIÓNBOTÍNISSUES A POSITIVE REPORTONBOTÍN CENTRE’S FIRST THREE MONTHS

  • Its inauguralexhibitions having come to an end, theFundaciónBotínpresented a positive report on how Botín Centre’s first few months had gone,and issued its thanks for the response it has drawn since opening.
  • Now summer is over,theFundaciónwill focus on achieving Botín Centre’slong-term goals: contributing to the personal development of allCantabriansand wealth creation in theregion,and establishing itsartisticprogramme on the international stage.
  • Since its doors opened, 7,314peoplehave participated in thecentre’s training activities,and the first school visits have taken place; a university course on thedevelopmentof creativityvia thearts (with over 100 pre-enrolments) has been launched;and in OctoberandNovembertwo new courses will be held onarts, emotions andcreativityforadultsand families.
  • So as to try tocontributeto thegrowthandpromote year-round tourismin Cantabria, joint work has already been initiated alongside theregional government and Santander City Council, airlines andhotel and travel companies.
  • In these first months ofoperations, 103,787 people haveattended theexhibitionsandtaken part inBotín Centre initiatives. In addition, 792,608 have experienced this new Santander art centre for the first time. TheFundaciónis very satisfied with these results,especially for the manner in which, in a natural way, Botín Centrehas become a well-frequentedartandculture-based meeting point in Santander city centre, thus achieving one of its main goals.
  • Thenext date onBotín Centre’s exhibitions calendar is the opening on 12Octoberof the most important Julie Mehreturetrospectivein Europe to date.Then, inNovember,theFundaciónwill publish itsexhibitions programme for 2018.

Santander, 26 September 2017.-The chief executive oftheFundaciónBotín, ÍñigoSáenzdeMiera, highlighted in this morning’s press conferencethe exceptional response of Cantabrian society toBotín Centresince its opening on 23 June, confirming that they were“verygrateful”.“These three months ofactivity have witnessed the achievement of one of this project’s key objectives: EstablishingBotín Centre, in its location between the city centre and its bay, as an art and culture-based meeting placein Santander. We are very pleased with how everything is going; it’s good to have a good start, but it’s the long-term that really matters”.

During the event, which also featured the participation ofBotín Centre’sexecutivedirector, Fátima Sánchez, andartistic director, Benjamin Weil, SáenzofMierarecalled that for Botín Centrelong-termsuccess meanscontributing to generating social development, by harnessing the potential of theartsto awakencreativity, agoal – that of generatingdevelopment –shared with theGovernmentof Cantabria and Santander City Council, with whom theFundaciónBotínhas collaborated activelyprior to the advent ofBotín Centre.

Inthese threemonthsofactivity, 103,787 peoplehave attendedexhibitionsand participatedin Botín Centre activities. Moreover, 792,608 have come along to find out about the most important projecttheFundaciónBotínhas ever undertaken.

To date,110,224 Passeshave been issued. These arecards entitling thecitizensof Cantabria to free and unrestricted access to theexhibitions. Likewise, the newartcentre can already draw on the support of 6,011Friends.

TheFundaciónBotínalso took the opportunity to thank all the companies who have sponsoredBotín Centreso far– the Ramón ArecesFundación, ‘La Caixa’ Banking Foundation, the FundaciónMutuaMadrileña, Viesgo, Orange Spain, the FundaciónProsegur, Vocento, DiarioMontañés, Unidad Editorial, JC DecauxandPrisa –for theircontributiontothe construction of amore creative society via thearts. Thus, inSáenzofMiera’s words, “along with all of them,theFundaciónBotínshares an interest in reinforcing anddriving forward social, cultural and economicrevitalizationinCantabria”.Thanks were also extended to thestrategicpartners who collaborated withBotín Centreto developthe Carsten Höller show: InelcomandColecciónOlor Visual.

Exhibitionsandactivities

Since itopened, 96,473people havepassed throughBotín Centre’s exhibition roomsto attain first-hand knowledgeof the centre’s inaugural exhibitionsprogramme: Carsten Höller’s first show in Spain (“Y”, which ran from 23 June until 10 September); themost significant exhibition of Goya’s drawingsinour country, jointly organised with theMuseo del Prado (“Agility and Audacity. Goya’s drawings”, which closedlast Sunday),and “Artat the turn of the century”, an initial presentation oftheFundaciónBotínCollection,which will be modified, withnewworks being unveiled throughout 2018.

Regardingvisitor numbersfor theexhibitions, it is worth highlighting the fact that 42.93% werecitizensof Cantabria, while 48.34% were from the rest ofSpain, and 8.73% were from abroad.

The finishing touch was brought to the inaugural exhibitionsprogrammebythemost wide-ranging programmeoftrainingand culturalactivities of recent years. A compendiumof85initiativesinthe first threemonths related tothe visual arts, music, cinema, theatre, danceandliterature, for which the common denominator wasqualityandcreativity. A total of 7,314people took part in this programme,ofwhichapproximately2,500 enjoyed the experience-visitsandmediator-visits inthis initial quarter of activity. The latter were the visitors who became more deeply acquainted both withBotín Centreand with itsartistic programming.Guided itineraries todiscover thedetails of the building designed by Renzo Piano, the experience-based proposals to get deeper intoHöller’s workandjourneys to the heart ofartvia atheatre-basedfocus on Goya’s drawingselicited a great response. Tickets always ran out.

Similarly, Botín Centrehas establishednewspaces fornew formats within the framework of programmingwhich has featured classical music, jazz, pop, rock and electronic musicfor all audiences: children, families, young peopleandadults;andinwhich3,504people have participated.

This summer a course was held on thearts, emotionsandcreativityforchildren,the result of research undertaken with YaleUniversity,along with dance, illustration andliterature workshops;masterclasses, cinemaseasons andperforming artsactivities completedtheopening programming.

Future perspectives

Looking to the future, andwith the aim ofengendering social development by harnessing thepotentialof theartsto awakencreativity, in the future the newartcentre willreinforcethe programmes forthe visual artsandtrainingwith whichtheFundaciónBotínhas traditionally achieved very good results, a roadmap underpinned by threestrategic axes:training, researchand dissemination.

Botín Centre’s trainingmission is to inspire people in terms of attitudeand creativity in order for themto be able to fulfil their wish to improve their own lives and surroundings.The aim is to facilitateaccessto andinteractionwith theartsfor all audiences, using their enormouspotentialfor developing emotional intelligence andcreativity. Thus, along with grants and workshops led byinternational artists, Botín Centreworks in parallelon innovative programmesinthe training field, like theMaster’s Degree in Social, Emotional and Creative Education, now in its seventh edition inpartnership with the Faculty of Education ofthe Universityof Cantabria,orthe firstprogrammefordevelopmentof creative thoughtvia theartsfor university students (C! Program), which is also run in collaboration withtheUniversityof Cantabria,andaimed at all degree courses. This innovativeproposal–coordinatedby the expertin creative thought, Carlos Luna –will commenceinthe secondquarterof the 2017/2018academic year, with a duration of 30 hours per course. At the end,students will be awarded a certificateaccreditingtheir creative talent for taking onnewprofessionaland personal challenges, skills which are highly valued in an increasingly complex labour market.

Additionally,inthe last quarter of the year there will be two further coursesgeared towardsadultsand families, respectively. Their aimis to developparticipants’emotionaland creative skillsby means of thearts, by following methodologies produced by research undertaken by theFundaciónBotínin collaboration withYale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

Similarly, during the current academic year,Botín Centrewill reinforce theReflejArteprogramme, a unique educational resourcefornurturingchildren’s creativity throughart,which impacts directly on the way kids learn, and on theirdevelopment. It is a pioneering trainingproposalon a world level developedinpartnership with YaleUniversity, one of the world’s top educational institutions, andis supported by “LaCaixa” Banking Foundation, with whomBotín Centresigned a partnership agreement in June tojointly developthisprogrammeatBotín Centreandalso contributeto its expansion to allprimary and secondary schoolsin Cantabria.To this end,Botín Centreand“La Caixa” Banking Foundation have already completed the design ofthis academic year’s edition of the ReflejArteprogramme, based around the Julie Mehretu exhibition,and have made contact with the 237 infants’ primaryandsecondary schoolsand high schools in theregion to offer them the chance to participate in it viaworksessions for pupils atBotín Centre’s exhibitions roomsevery morning starting from 13 October.

Thus, to dateandthanks to thisinitiative,more than 30,000 Cantabrian pupils have improved theirself-esteem, empathyand emotional intelligence, as well as other social and creative skills which are key to achieving academic and lifelong success.

Theresearchinto drawing by great Spanish masters from all periods,andartisticdissemination by means ofinternationalexhibitions producedby theFundaciónitself, which are the result of itsresearch and training programmes, completethe three axes on which the organisation’sartisticprogramme is based. Inthese terms, “Julie Mehretu. AUniversal History of Everything and Nothing”, will open to the general public on 12 October. It will be the most importantEuropean Julie Mehretu retrospective to date, and theexhibitionwhichwill bring to a close Botín Centre exhibitions programme in this its first year of existence.

Vicente Todolí, President of the Visual Arts Advisory Committee at FundaciónBotín,and Suzanne Cotter, directorof theMuseudeArteContemporáneaSerralves (Porto), theFundaciónBotín’s partner inthe joint organisation of the show, will be theexhibition’s curators. Internationally considered to be one of her generation’s most outstanding artists, in 2015 Mehretu led one of the visual arts workshops at Villa Iris which are run annually bytheFundaciónBotín.

Furtherinformationat

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Botín Centre

Botín Centre, designed by the architect Renzo Piano, is theFundaciónBotín’s keynote project and aspiresto become a private arts centre of referenceinSpain, a member of theinternationalcircuit of first-classarts centres, whichwill contribute via theartstodevelopingcreativityto generate economic and social wealth in Santander.It will also be apioneering place on a world level for thedevelopmentofcreativityto harness thepotentialof theartsfor thedevelopmentofpeople’s emotionalintelligence andcreative skills. Lastly, it will be a new meeting place inthe privileged setting of thecity centre, adding the finishing touch to acultural cornerstone fortheCantabrian coast and serving as the driver for national andinternationalpromotion ofthecityandtheregion.

For furtherinformation:

TheFundaciónBotín
María Cagigas

Tel.: +34 917 814 132 - +34 650 434 470