• Centro Botín had 184,727 visitors in 2025, an increase of 4.5% from the previous year. Of these, 42,145 participated in the 342 artistic, cultural and educational activities organized throughout the year, and 142,582 attended the exhibitions. Of the latter group, 36% were from Cantabria, 46% from other autonomous communities of Spain and 18% were international visitors, with French, British and Italian visitors accounting for the largest share.
• The number of friends of Centro Botín exceeded 3,000 for the first time since 2019, and throughout the year, almost 5,000 Cantabrians obtained their permanent pass, making a total of 163,000 people in the region who now have free and unlimited access to the exhibitions, representing almost a third of the region’s inhabitants. According to the Director General of Fundación Botín, ‘these two statistics are the best indicator of the Centre’s success in fulfilling its mission to enrich the life of the region through the arts and develop the creativity of its inhabitants’.
• Participants rated the activities 4.75 out of 5, the highest score since the Centre opened. Occupancy also reached a high of 91.1%. Music attracted the most attendees, followed by participatory creative activities and film screenings. The Santander International Film Festival also enjoyed a year of significant growth, with more viewers and more films in the competition than ever before.

Centro Botín ended 2025 with a total of 184,727 visitors, 4.5% more than the previous year, continuing its steady growth since 2020 and playing a prominent role as a cultural hub and tourist attraction. This increase is particularly reflected in exhibition activity, which recorded 142,582 visitors (+16.4%), while 42,145 people participated in the 342 artistic, cultural and educational activities held throughout the year. Since its inauguration, Centro Botín has welcomed 1,222,287 people, reflecting a consistent and stable evolution over time, and is now a project that is fully integrated into the city and highly valued both nationally and internationally. These and other figures will be released this afternoon at the International Tourism Fair (FITUR), at the Cantabria stand, by Iñigo Sáenz de Miera, Director General of Fundación Botín.

‘In 2025, we achieved an occupancy rate of 91.1%, exceeding the previous year by over one percentage point, demonstrating that our efforts to improve the quality of our programming and diversify our cultural offering year after year are bearing fruit’, said Sáenz de Miera, who also noted that maintaining an average satisfaction rating of 4.75 out of 5 in recent years should be considered a very positive indicator.

Cantabrian passes issued have also increased by 3% to 162,820 citizens of Santander and Cantabria, who now have free and unlimited access to exhibitions (representing 27.4% of Cantabrians), with 4,781 passes issued in the last financial year (an average of 14 per day). The Friends of Centro Botín passes are also on the rise, with 3.3% more cards issued, totalling 3,006 new subscriptions in 2025 (an average of 8 per day). “These indicators show how the Centre generates a real bond with society. Our mission is to awaken people’s creative capacity by facilitating access to the arts and using this potential to develop creativity and emotional intelligence’, explains Sáenz de Miera. ’This social commitment, supported by the research we are conducting with Yale University, takes the form of artistic and educational programmes aimed at audiences of all ages.’

It is important to note that five new sponsors have joined the Centro Botín project in 2025 (Plenitude, Cope, Colegio de Médicos, Restaurante Nuevo Molino and Parte Automóviles), bringing the total number of institutions and companies that share and support Fundación Botín art centre’s mission in Santander to 32. The centre also has the support of the Mutua Madrileña Foundation, the Prosegur Foundation, Cantur, Santander City Council, Fundación EDP, Bridgestone, Vocento, El Diario Montañés, Unidad Editorial, El País, Cadena SER, Spend In Magazine, Onda Cero, JCDecaux, Eurostars Hotels, Alsa, Iberia, Renfe, Viajes Mesana, IMEM, Café Dromedario, Uría Menéndez, Derwent Group and Micampus.

The number of visitors keeps rising

Of the 184,727 visitors, 36% (51,439 people) are still inhabitants of Santander and Cantabria. The proportion of visitors from other parts of Spain, excluding Cantabria, has grown compared to 2024, representing 46% of the total. Visitors from the Community of Madrid top the list (26,342), accounting for 40% of the total number of Spanish visitors, followed – far behind – by visitors from Castile and León (6,857) and the Basque Country (6,460). International visitors also increased, accounting for 18%, a 7% increase compared to 2024, with 25,432 people who mainly come from France (6,401), the United Kingdom (3,827) and Italy (3,575).

The building, its walkways, squares and outdoor spaces received 859,294 visits, meaning that for every visitor to the exhibitions and activities, another five enjoyed the venue and its surroundings. August was once again the month with the highest attendance numbers at the exhibitions, with 27,881 visits (19.5% of the annual total), with the daily high recorded on 20 August, with 1,486 visitors. Also noteworthy were July, with 21,188 visitors, and April, with 14,267, the latter being the month in which Maruja Mallo: Mask and Compass. Paintings and Drawings from 1924 to 1982, the largest retrospective dedicated to the artist to date, was inaugurated.

In the digital sphere, Centro Botín ended 2025 with 41,139 followers on Facebook and 12,080 on X. Instagram was once again the platform with the highest growth (+11.4%), reaching 43,529 followers in 2025. Meanwhile, the Centro Botín website recorded 635,866 visits, representing an increase of 21% over the previous year.

Increased participation and greater impact of programming

The activities organised by Centro Botín in 2025 once again attracted large numbers of participants, with a total of 42,145 people enjoying the 342 artistic, cultural and educational activities on offer. Music has established itself as the most popular attraction, drawing 14,038 attendees, followed by interactive creative activities such as Christmas events, experimental workshops linked to exhibitions, and the creative process being developed in the Cooking Sections exhibition, which together attracted 8,352 people. These were followed by cinema-related events, which attracted 6,459 viewers, and the performing arts, with 3,088 attendees.

Notable events included the closing party for the Shimabuku exhibition, attended by 478 people, and the Fanfare Ciocarlia concert, which gathered 1,546 people. Likewise, the participatory creative process developed around the Cooking Sections’ exhibition Las olas perdidas (The Lost Waves) reinforced the public’s direct involvement in contemporary artistic creation.

Organised by Morena Films and Centro Botín, the ninth edition of the Santander Film Festival (FCS) was held from 12 to 18 September in various venues across the city of Santander. As the main venue, Centro Botín hosted 11 film screenings, three sessions for schoolchildren, two discussions with filmmakers (Oliver Laxe and Rodrigo Sorogoyen), a meeting with Luis Tosar, three industry round tables, and nine Platino Next Gen workshops, featuring other prominent names such as Icíar Bollaín, Carlos Bardem, María Zamora, Clara Roquet, and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart.

An exhibition programme with international scope

2025 was marked by a major exhibition programme, which began in April with the opening of Maruja Mallo: Mask and Compass. Paintings and Drawings from 1924 to 1982, co-produced with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. The largest retrospective of work by Mallo to date also included the first internationally distributed monographic publication dedicated to the artist, published in both Spanish and English. The exhibition, highly praised by critics, was considered one of the most interesting cultural events of the year, receiving extensive coverage in the national and international media.

Also worth noting is the 30th anniversary of Itinerarios, the annual exhibition showcasing the work of artists awarded art grants by Fundación Botín. To mark this milestone in 2025, more than 60 former scholarship recipients and jury members gathered in Santander to engage in an intergenerational dialogue, which included the participation of Lara Almarcegui, Carlos Bunga, Joan Morey, Cabello / Carceller, Eli Cortiñas, Leonor Serrano-Rivas, Javier Arce, Concha García and Juan López, Agustín Pérez Rubio and Laura Vallés Vilchez, among others.

In keeping with its mission to promote and support the artistic community, May saw the presentation of Enredos II, the second chapter of the exhibition programme through which Fundación Botín invites artists who have previously received one of its Art Grants to further collaborate with the Centre to develop new projects. On this occasion, Portuguese artist Nuno da Luz presented two new sound installations, produced by Fundación Botín, in which he explores sound as a tool for revealing and activating architecture from a perspective close to environmental art.

A month later, in June, Centro Botín inaugurated the permanent exhibition Point and Counterpoint: 20th-Century Masters in the Jaime Botín Collection, which brought together seventeen works from his personal collection, entrusted to the Centre by his heirs. The exhibition features highly renowned Spanish and international artists such as María Blanchard, Juan Gris, Manolo Millares, Joan Miró, Joaquín Sorolla, Antoni Tàpies, Francis Bacon, Henri Matisse and Mark Rothko, and proposes a dialogue between styles and generations, from the avant-garde to post-war art. In October, the London-based collective Cooking Sections, formed by Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, inaugurated Waves Lost at Sea, their first exhibition in Spain, currently on display until 1 March and produced specifically for Centro Botín. From a critical and contemporary perspective, the installation addresses the relationship between ecology and landscape, accompanied by various participatory actions that extend its impact beyond the exhibition spaces.

In 2026, the exhibition program begins in March with Entanglements by Japanese artist Yuko Mohri, which transforms everyday objects and invisible forces into moving ecosystems. This will be followed by the first retrospective in Spain dedicated to the drawings of Marisol, offering a comprehensive view of the celebrated American artist’s work on paper, accompanied by sculptures and archival materials. In October, the first exhibition in Spain by Brazilian artist Solange Pessoa will open, presenting a survey of her practice that combines sculpture, drawing, installation, and film, with an inventive use of organic and unconventional materials. The program concludes in November with the opening of Itinerarios XXXI, thus reinforcing the Botín Foundation’s support for national and international contemporary art.

With regard to artistic training – and in line with Fundación Botín’s commitment to enriching the artistic fabric and to supporting the training of contemporary creators – at the beginning of the year, applications will open for the 33rd Art Grants and the 20th Museum Management and Exhibition Curating Grants. Two Art Workshops are also planned, led by Yuko Mohri and Solange Pessoa, which will encourage collaboration and creative exchange among participants.