Santander, Spain's new art capital

Why ARS Foundation chose this Cantabrian city to present its international prize.

Botin Foundation Building by Renzo Piano

Some cities shed their skin all at once. Santander has been doing it patiently, with well-invested resources, and in 2026 the process crystallises in a way few Spanish provincial capitals can claim: within the space of a few weeks, this Cantabrian city opens two world-class cultural venues, consolidates an art fair with more than three decades of history, and earns the recognition of institutions that, until recently, looked only towards Madrid or Barcelona. ARS Foundation is one of them. This summer, within the framework of the 34th edition of ARTESANTANDER, the Swiss foundation headquartered in Geneva will present the ARS International Prize on Spanish soil for the first time —and it will do so in Santander.

The decision is neither accidental nor merely logistical. It is strategic, and it is worth explaining why.

A harbour that became a museum

Anyone who has walked along the Paseo de Pereda in recent years knows that something is happening in that strip between the historic city and the bay. In 2017, Renzo Piano —Pritzker Prize laureate and architect of the Centre Pompidou in Paris— delivered to the city the Centro Botín: two trapezoidal volumes of 10,000 square metres clad with 280,000 pearl-white ceramic tiles that float, literally, above the waters of the Bay of Biscay. The building is not merely an architectural landmark; it is, above all, a statement of intent. The Fundación Botín, established in 1964 to foster the cultural development of Cantabria, commissioned Piano to design a building that would not obstruct views of the sea, would not turn its back on the city, and would bury the traffic that separated the Jardines de Pereda from the waterfront. The result is one of the few works of contemporary architecture in Spain that has physically transformed the urban fabric around it. But the Centro Botín was, so to speak, the first piece of a puzzle that is only now being completed.

2026: the year everything converges

On 8 September 2026, Faro Santander will open its doors in the landmark Edificio Pereda, the former headquarters of Banco Santander on the Paseo de Pereda, following the completion of its restoration. The project, driven by Fundación Banco Santander, was entrusted to British architect David Chipperfield, winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2023. Faro Santander is organised across six levels: the first five floors will house the bank's collection and temporary exhibitions, while the sixth floor is reserved for a panoramic terrace, café and restaurant. The opening will feature an exceptional asset: the Gelman Santander Collection, the result of an agreement reached in January 2026 between Banco Santander and the Zambrano family —owners of the cement group Cemex— for the long-term stewardship of one of the world's most important collections of Mexican art: works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, María Izquierdo, Rufino Tamayo, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. A masterstroke that places Faro Santander, from its very first day, on the map of international collecting.

In parallel, with a date yet to be confirmed, the opening of the Museo Reina Sofía-Archivo Lafuente is advancing in the historic former Banco de España building on the Plaza de Alfonso XIII. In what the director of the Museo Nacional, Manuel Segade, has described as "the most important territorial project the National Museum has undertaken since its founding", this will be the first centre associated with the Reina Sofía in Spain. It will also house the country's first publicly accessible museum storage facility —a pioneering format that will open to the public works and materials normally reserved for specialists. The Archivo Lafuente, acquired by the Spanish State in 2022 for nearly 30 million euros, is one of the most important 20th-century art archives in Europe.

Two historic buildings restored. Two world-class institutions. Two architects of international standing. And between them, just a few metres above the bay, the Centro Botín by Renzo Piano as permanent witness. Santander has in 2026 something few Spanish cities can claim: a concentration of outstanding cultural infrastructure built with coherence and with long-term vision.

ARTESANTANDER: the fair that has held its ground for thirty-four years

It is in this context that the presence of ARS Foundation at ARTESANTANDER makes complete sense. ARTESANTANDER is Spain's longest-running contemporary art fair after ARCOmadrid. Thirty-four editions held without interruption at the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos, beside the beaches of El Sardinero. Led since 2024 by curator and cultural producer Mónica Álvarez Careaga, the fair has managed to reinvent itself without losing its identity: more than 40 national and international galleries, artists, publishers and collectors gathered in a platform that turns Santander into the epicentre of contemporary art each July.

ARTESANTANDER is not ARCO. It does not aspire to be. It is something harder to build: a fair with its own identity, rooted in a territory, capable of bringing together veteran gallerists and emerging proposals without either feeling out of place. This edition welcomes galleries from Germany, Italy, Portugal and France alongside the major names in Spanish gallerism. And it also welcomes, for the first time, the institutional presence of ARS Foundation.

Why ARS Foundation looks to Santander

“Santander is today one of the most interesting cities in Europe for serious discussions about art. It’s not a city that has bought cultural visibility with a single big bet; it’s a city that has built an ecosystem coherently and over time. That’s exactly what the ARS Foundation looks for when deciding where to be.”

— Jaume Torres, President of the ARS Foundation

The ARS Foundation operates at the intersection of contemporary art, private collecting, and cultural diplomacy. Its programs—of which the ARS International Prize is the most visible—seek to recognize institutions and individuals who are building something lasting, not just something that can be exhibited. Santander, by 2026, more than meets that criterion.

The city has not built its new cultural ecosystem through blockbuster exhibitions or fleeting headlines. It has done so through institutional patience: the Fundación Botín has existed since 1964, the Centro Botín took seven years to build, the Reina Sofía-Archivo Lafuente project has been under construction for four years. That slow and ambitious cadence —the cadence of those who know they are building for generations— is precisely the kind of vision with which ARS Foundation wishes to engage.

There is also a geographical dimension that should not be overlooked. Santander faces north: towards the Bay of Biscay, towards Europe, towards the collectors and curators from northern Europe who travel every summer to a city that combines heritage, nature and, increasingly, world-class cultural offerings. ARS Foundation, headquartered in Geneva, knows this audience well. In Santander, it finds it in its purest form.

A prize, a city, a moment

The ARS International Prize does not enter into more galleries or more than four exhibition spaces. We enter into a genuine conversation on the paper of art in society, on the relationship between the private and the public, and how the entrepreneur can build the city. Santander, in the summer of 2026, is the place where this conversation is more lively, more urgent and more in Spain.

Faro Santander opened on September 8. El Reina Sofía-Archivo Lafuente has already seen her in the ancient Banco de España. El Centro Botín has been showing for a decade that excellent architecture transformed a beach into a symbol. Y ARTESANTANDER has three years and four years, for the Spanish gallery, in the summer.

So much so that the foundation has worked on a more ambitious project: an International Cultural Biennale in a public space with a permanent presence in Santander, planned for 2028, which aspires to convert the city and its coast into a scenario of site-specific interventions by international artists.

ARS Foundation arrives in Santander at exactly the right moment. And it intends to stay.

The ARS Foundation is a Swiss foundation based in Geneva dedicated to supporting international contemporary art. It manages cultural diplomacy, collecting, and institutional mediation programs in Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. The ARS International Prize annually recognizes established artists in their home countries who wish to expand their horizons and are developing projects with lasting impact.