Fundación Botin, sowing the seeds of the future
The Marcelino Botín Foundation was created in 1964 by Marcelino Botín Sanz de Sautuola and his wife, Carmen Yllera, to promote the social development of Cantabria.
Today it maintains its focus on Cantabria but also operates throughout Spain and Latin America, contributing to the integral development of society by exploring new ways of detecting creative talent, committing to this to generate wealth.
Its President is Javier Botín, who has held this position since the death of his father, Emilio Botín García de los Ríos, in September 2014 who had been President of the Foundation since 1993.
Mission
The mission of the Botin Foundation is to contribute to the integral development of society, exploring new ways of detecting creative talent and committing to it to generate cultural, social and economic wealth. To do this, the Botin Foundation develops programmes in the fields of art and culture, education, institution consolidation, science and rural development. In addition, it has a Water Observatory specialising in the analysis of the governance and comprehensive management of water resources.
Offices
The headquarters of the Botin Foundation is in Santander. Since 2012 it also has an office in Madrid to respond to the growing demands of its activity. In addition, in Cantabria there is the Rectoral House of Puente Pumar, the Foundation’s operations centre in the Nansa Valley, from where it carries out its Rural Development, Heritage and Territory Program.
The most important project of the Foundation is the Botin Centre. Inaugurated in June 2017 in Santander, it is an art centre that aims to bring a different point of view to the art world and whose social mission is to enhance the creativity of all audiences through the arts to generate development and economic, social and cultural wealth. Thus, along with its exhibitions from both the Botin Foundation collection and international artists, with the idea of offering visitors more opportunities to meet and enjoy the best of the international art in an inspiring enclave, the Botin Centre has a wide variety of artistic, cultural and educational activities, which year after year come together in a varied program that includes concerts, film series, dance and theatre shows, different types of visits to exhibitions, workshops, courses, etc.