Throughout history, culture has been a driving force behind prosperous societies. Santander has long-supported the arts as a form of expression and knowledge and these are some of the projects we have developed around the world to promote the dissemination of culture and knowledge.
 

More than one million people have had the opportunity to participate in our cultural projects and programmes. 

Brazil

Santander Brazil has both cultural and entrepreneurial centres, located in São Paulo and Porto Alegre, under the umbrella of Farol Santander. These spaces have become the stage for various contemporary art exhibitions to raise public awareness of issues important to the community. The spaces also play host to discussion forums and events related to start-ups and innovation.

Brazil also has Santander Theatre, a large and modern multi-purpose venue used to organise cultural events, concerts, performances and exhibitions.

In addition to these cultural centres, Santander Brazil allocates resources to cultural projects such as the preservation, expansion and dissemination of visual arts and institutional memory through the Santander Brazil Collection. 

The Santander Culture Institute in Brazil, located in a historical building in Porto Alegre, is involved in activities that promote visual arts, cinema and music, as well as initiatives in the fields of education and knowledge. It has been running for more than 17 years, and throughout that time it has always had its doors open to school and university students, artists, opinion leaders and the general public, who have attended various seminars, arts workshops, training and educational courses, etc. More than six million people have already visited this centre to enjoy the 90 visual arts exhibitions, 700 performances and more than 4,500 films in daily sessions, scheduled over the last 17 years. 

Chile

Together with the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, Santander Chile is involved in a significant publishing initiative in relation to art and pre-Columbian villages. This collaboration began more than three decades ago and has given us great works of history that help us better understand today’s society and provides us with tools for progress. 

Over the years, Santander Chile has created cultural partnerships with important institutions such as the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, the Palacio La Moneda Cultural Centre and the National Museum of Fine Arts, among others.

Spain

The Banco Santander Foundation in Spain has become home to great art from across Spain and around the world, a corner where literature, music and history will always have the space they deserve. In just one year, the exhibition halls located in the Spanish capital recorded more than 14,000 visitors and hosted over 1,000 works of art. It is also the starting place from which we manage the Banco Santander Collection, develop initiatives to support NGOs, restore natural spaces and develop programmes such as Santander Employs Culture, aimed at creating jobs for young people, as well many other plans.

Architecture is an art form that can take us back in time. Caring for and maintaining historical buildings is essential in protecting our heritage. To this end, Santander is remodelling two of our most iconic buildings in the city of Santander, Spain. These buildings are the one located on Paseo de Pereda, the bank’s headquarters, dating back to 1795, and the one on Hernán Cortés Street, which dates back to 1900.

Both buildings are cultural and institutional reference points, and their remodelling will help to contribute to the growth of our home city of Santander. 

Poland

Santander Bank Polska constantly participates in charitable activities, focused on cultural, educational and social purposes. These activities include Santander Orchestra, a programme launched in 2015 and led by Banco Zachodni WBK, which is not only an orchestra, but above all, an educational project combining top quality musical training with other activities which are hard to come by in traditional education, eg. theoretical lectures on copyright, finance management, body biomechanics, image and career building. The album which came out in 2016, was hailed as the record of the month by the prestigious ResMusica.com music magazine. In 2019 alone, young artists played 13 concerts for 12 000 people. It also has music workshops for children aged 5 to 12 years old. 

UK

Santander UK has several programmes which contribute to the prosperity of the country’s communities. A grant programme will be launched in 2020 to support organisations that provide skills to empower people digitally and financially. 

In addition, the Santander Foundation in the United Kingdom has donated 1 million pounds sterling to the NGOs Age UK and Alzheimer's Society to support some of the most vulnerable people in the community following the covid-19 outbreak.
 

Portugal

With a goal to protect and extend the Portuguese language, Santander Portugal signed an agreement with the Camões Institute for Cooperation and Language to offer scholarships to foreign students who wish to attend language and culture courses in Portugal. 

In 2018 we sponsored the 10th edition of the Arts Festival, a summer festival which has become a national reference point and a fundamental part of cultural tourism in the region of Coimbra.
 

United States

In the United States, we sponsor the Family Discovery Series, an event for all audiences focused on discovering new art, which was hosted at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia in its 2019-2020 season. This centre is of particular importance to the community because, through art, it advocates for diversity, involving the various communities that make up the region’s population. 

We also sponsor Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, which is dedicated to hosting sports events, concerts and conventions, as well as the PVD Fest, a festival that fills the streets of Providence with artists, creativity and diversity.