New Art Center in Spain Opening with Some Big (and Controversial) Shows
Spain is getting a new art center called Faro Santander, set to open in September. The lineup includes the Gelman Collection, which has drawn its share of controversy, along with rarely exhibited works from the Banco Santander holdings and a solo exhibition of Leonora Carrington's work. For me, any time a new space opens dedicated to showing art that's been tucked away, that matters. More walls, more eyes, more conversations about what belongs in public view and who gets to decide. I spent years making work nobody saw, so I tend to root for anything that gets art out of storage and in front of people. What do you all think about institutions opening with polarizing collections? Does controversy help or hurt a new venue's credibility?
Source: ARTnews — https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/news/faro-santander-september-2026-opening-gelman-collection-1234793355/
Santander is becoming a Cultural Hub and with views to open still another Museum in the next years, the local branch of Reina Sofia Museum / Lafuente Collection at the old Banco de España building (expected before 2030), Santander is becoming a relevant hotspot in the North of Spain (joining the Centro Botín and the newly opened Faro Santander).
Museums are always good to have, and the more the merrier. BUT, it's the impression of always having the same art and the same artists that might feel a bit uneasy. Sometimes, as an artist, there's this feeling of lack of opportunity to make our art seen to the big public. This "background underworld" of who decides what's great art and what's not is the most difficult thing to navigate.
How many times we've seen ourselves at a museum thinking "My stuff is definitely nicer/better than this". That's the big controversy every time a new exhibition space opens. What does actually deserve to be there, and who actually gets to judge/decide that?